The Crusader Kingdom of Cyprus—a theater province of medieval Europe? Including a critical edition of the Cyprus Passion Cycle and the 'Repraesentatio figurata' of the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, and: Η Κύπρος των Σταυροφόρων και το θρησκευτικό θέατρο του Μεσαίωνα, and: Ανέκδοτα στιχουργήματα του θρησκευτικού θεάτρου του ΙΖ΄ αιώνα. Έργα των Ορθοδόξων Χίων κληρικών Μιχ. Βεστάρχη, Γρηγ. Κονταράτου, και Γαβρ. Προσοψά (review)

No scholar has contributed more than Walter Puchner to the history of medieval and modern Greek theater. His output is as varied as it is vast, ranging from groundbreaking philological and dramaturgical studies of the early modern Cretan and Heptanesian theater to studies on Greek shadow theater and a handbook on the theory of drama. Characteristic of his work is an impressive grasp of data and a very full documentation, in footnotes and bibliographies, which lends particular weight to the interpretations he offers and makes his work an invaluable starting-point for further study. His conclusions are backed by an encyclopedic knowledge of world theater and an ability to use materials in many languages-an ability which seems now increasingly rare and perhaps undervalued, especially in the English-speaking world.

The Crusader Kingdom of Cyprus is the second in the series "Texts and Documents of Early Modern Greek Theater" produced by the research program, History of Greek Theater and Drama from the Middle Ages to the Greek Revolution of 1821, of which Professor Puchner is Director and Professor Conomis Supervisor. Its subject is two important medieval texts in the context of the issue of "Byzantine theater" and of the special role in theater history of the island of Cyprus, with which both texts have, at the least, a strong connection.

The question of whether theater existed as an institution in Byzantine civilization at all, and, if so, what form it took, is an old one which remains the subject of heated debate. Puchner deals with this issue in the main part of his Introduction (pp. 20-56). Arguments for the existence of a Byzantine theater have been promoted since the nineteenth century by scholars such as Konstantinos Sathas, Venetia Cottas, and, most recently, Ch. Tsangaridis (Tsaggarides in Puchner's transliteration) in his unpublished postgraduate thesis, Ο μεσαιωνικός “Κυπριακός” κύκλος του είου Πάθους: Συμβολή στη μελέτη των προβλημάτων του έργου (The Medieval "Cypriot" Passion Cycle: A Contribution to the Study of its Problems) (Thessaloniki 1998) and a subsequent article, “Η ‘κυπριακή’ σκηνική διδασκαλία των Παθών” ("The 'Cypriot' Stage Presentation of the Passion") in Επετηρίδα Κέντρου Μελετών Ιεράς Μονής Κύκκου (Yearbook of the Research Center of the Holy Monastery of Kykkos) 5 (2001:259-296).

Puchner's own answer is basically negative-that after the establishment of Christianity and with the hostility of Christian prelates to pagan culture, and especially to aspects of it which they considered immoral, the last remnants of the ancient theater tradition withered away. The decline can be traced: for διονυσιακοί τεχνίται ("theater professionals"), epigraphic evidence "gives more than 3,000 names for the whole of antiquity, for the third century AD only 200, and for the fourth to the sixth century AD a mere 23" (p. 23). What did survive, to some extent, were improvised farces and mimes, though these too declined after bans and the withdrawal of state support in the sixth century. In later times, Church leaders simply repeated the traditional condemnations of obsolete pagan practices, so their fulminations are not evidence for contemporary theater performance. Puchner notes that words from the language of theater take on new, non-theatrical meanings; for example, υποκριτής (actor) acquires its modern pejorative sense of "hypocrite."

What about the possibility of religious theater? What about the dialogic elements in, for example, some hymns by Romanos? Puchner points out that dialogue in itself is not theater, nor is it evidence for theater. Even the famous Χριστός πάσχων (Christus patiens) is not the product...