Theatre time - line

534 BC - Drama AS competition

550-630 BC - Greek Theatre

900-1500 - Mystery plays and morality plays

1500-1700 - Comedia dell'arte/Satire/Slapstick

1550-1642 - Revenge tragedy and Elizabethan theatre

1642-1660 - Puritans ban theatre

1660-1800 - Restoration comedy

1800-1880 - Melodrama

1880-1940 - Realism/Naturalism

1952-1965 - Theatre of the absurd

1976 - National theatre opens