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Ever since the year 165 B.C., there has been a continual crisis within the Italian theater. It all began when Publius Terentius Afro was in Rome. Publius was a young author of promise who also was the protégé of the smart Greekophile salons of the time. While in Rome, he met Ambivius Turpione, who suggested they combine their efforts to entertain the Roman mobs with superior performances never seen in that time in the city. So together they worked to create a new comedy for the public to enjoy entitled Ecyra (The Mother-in-Law). But during the prologue of the play, the full theater was distracted by the blare of a trumpet from a neighboring square. The noise was announcing some mountebanks who played tricks on the rope. That would probably be equal to a football game in our time. So the filled theater at once dispersed to go and watch the acrobats. From that point on it was as if the theater in Italy was no match against sports. Italian men would say, "There is nothing to be done, the public does not care for the theater; especially when the theater has such a formidible opponent as sport. Besides, what is this Roman comedy, if not an Athenian? Alas, we have no theater!" (Dickinson 221). Even though many did not appreciate the theater to the full extent of sports during those two thousand years, Italians still went to the theater. Not only did the Italian theater endure through this time, on numerous occasions the Italian theater has nourished the other European theaters, as well. Many of the Italian theater's influences can be seen in Western theater today. "Shakespeare and his contemporaries in Europe, most significantly, in Italy are the primary influences on western theater" (Makintosh 7). Everything from our thaters today has evolved from them: design of the building, set, stage, art of the actor and audience. Just as Shakespeare was the basis for English theater, Commedia dell' Arte was the basis for Italian theater. There are so many Italian influences to the theater it would be virtually impossible to list them all. One common characteristic that applies to almost all of the well known Italian dramas around the post-war period is "a tragic sense of bewilderment, of desperstion, of terror before a creul and useless life" (Dickinson 227). This was brought about mostly by Luigi Pirandello. He truly was a great influence to the Italian theater. Other famous futurists of the theater include Fortunato Depero, Enrico Prampolini, F.T. Marinetti, and Giacomo Balla. But one of the most famous and well-known is Mussolini. He realized the purpose of the theater was not just to create and entertain but to inspire lasting emotions and sediments upon the audience. He proposed that the theater devote itself to the masses. This invited the masses to outdoor performances. It also inspired the group, Fascisti, to introduce the phrase "teatro di masse." For more information about futurist artists of the theater, click on their pictures. 
   Athanasopulos, Christos G. Contemporary Theater. New York: Wiley-Interscience Publication, 1983. Dickinson, Thomas H. The Theater in a Changing Europe. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1937. Izenour, George C. Theater Design. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. Mackintosh, Iain. Architecture, Actor and Audience. Great Britain: Butler & Tanner Ltd, 1993. |
    
Links For more information or pictures click on the photos above. 
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