Roman Comedy XX: Plautus’s Rudens, or Down by the Bay Where the Watermelons Grow

Posted byTriumvir ClioPosted inRoman Comedy, The Romans

Plautus steps away from the city and from Rome, or rather Greece, in Rudens.

Discussion Prompts

  1. Does the setting of this play (on the shore, outside the city, in neither Rome nor Greece) change how we should think about it? Why or why not?
  2. AP Credit: Compare/contrast with Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
  3. Palaestra and Ampelisca. Discuss.
  4. If you were directing this today, how would you cast it? How old would you make the characters? Why?
  5. What other themes stand out to you as you read this play?

Published by Triumvir Clio

I have a BA in History and Classical Civilization from Loyola University Chicago and an MPH from Western Michigan University. I've been a geometry teacher, a religion teacher, a writing tutor. I'm a writer, a knitter, a dancer, a singer, an actor. And, yes, for fun I like to reread everything that was assigned while getting my classics degree.

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