The 1957-58 Season in Rome

THE 1957-58 SEASON IN ROME ALMOST TIIE FIRST THING that strikes one upon coming to Italy, especially the central and southern parts, is the drama of Italy. The entire history of Italy from the beginnings up to the present, of course, has been one vast drama; but even more the people themselves seem to sense the drama implicit in every life situation, and they play their parts up to the hilt, even improvising new parts on every possible occasion . Tbeir love of costumes is evidenced by the fact that almost every trade is marked by a characteristic uniform. And one could never come to know all the myriad uniforms to be seen in and around the Quirinale in Rome. Pageants, parades, spectacles are innumerable in Italy: the Carnivale celebrated all over Italy, the Corsa del Palio in Siena, the Giclstra del Saracino in Arezzo, the Redentbre in Venice, the various ca.valcate in Sardinia, and many others. Ceremony is an everyday p9rt of life in greetings and leave-takings. Every small situation becomes dramatized: an insignificant automobile accident involving only a scratched fender, the giving of a ticket by a policeman, any trifling disagreement will call forth a one-act play. Their feelings are always very close to the snrface and inevitably become expressed dramatically with a beautifnI command of gesture. To ride a bus to town or to walk along the streets of Rome or Naples is to present oneself at the theater where an infinite number of dramas are acted out one after another. And immediately one would assume that the legitimate theater would be a live and flourisbing affair in Italy. Yet a survey of the plays being written and produced shows that this is far from the truth. Take the 1957-58 season in Rome, for example. It is, of course, very difficult to judge or even cbaracterize a season in midseason, but one or two things do seem to be qnite evident: that is, almost no new and significant plays are being written and produced. What plays do appear on the stage are largely foreign plays and revivals of earlier Italian successes. In all, there are some twelve theaters in Rome (not counting such places as Castel San Angelo and the Roman Theater in Ostia) where . plays are given, and of these, seven seem to have a regular season, short or long as the case may be. During the 1957-58 season running from mid-October to mid-April, about forty-seven different authors (not counting musical comedies) have been produced or are scheduled. (The final figure for the season will no doubt be somewhat Iiuger.) Of these forty-seven, twenty-two are foreign (eleven French, seven American , others English, Russian, Chinese ), five are revivals, and seven are 50 1958 THE 1957--58 SEASON IN ROME 51 popular Neapolitan or Roman. Of the new plays produced this season only two seem of any importance, or at least one can say they are enjoying a fairly long run. The total number of plays (which includes one-acters) certainly is not very imposing for a city of almost 2,000,000. Some of the foreign plays which have had success are: John Van Druten's I Am a Camera, Francis Goodrich and Albert Hackett's The Diary of Anne Frank, Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, Alan Melville's Simone and Laura, Terrence Rattigan's Separate Tables, Jean Anouilh's Ornifle, Louis Verneui!'s La Poltrona 47, Denise Amye!'s La Tuo Giovinezza. Scheduled to be produced are Tennessee Williams ' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Marcel Achard's Patate, and two plays by the Comedie Franyaise of Paris: Moliere's L'£cole des ma.ris and Marivaux's Le ieu'de Tamour et du hasard. Italian revivals this season have been Carlo Goldoni's L'impnlsario -delle Smirne (18th century), Gabriele D'Anuunzio's La figlia di Iorio (early 20th century), Vittorio Alfieri's Oreste (late 18th century), and Rosso di San Secondo's Le esperienze di Giovanni Arce, filasofo (early 20th century). Scheduled is Luigi Pirandello's Enrico IV. The new Italian plays of any note are Diego Fabbri's Figli d...