Theatres for Hire

Abstract The Piraeus were certainly leased out to private individuals in classical antiquity. It has been suggested that this was common and was true even for the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, and that this model was true for impermanent wooden theatres. This article argues a contrary position: that there is only one certain example of a leased theatre, which may for all we know have been unique. The other alleged parallel, the deme theatre in …