francisc performance, Teatrologia(1)
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Franciscan Performance: A Theatre Lost and Found Again
Author(s): Antonio Attisani and Jane House
Source: PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jan., 2003), pp. 48-60
Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of the Performing Arts Journal, Inc.
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PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art.
FRANCISCAN
PERFORMANCE
A TheatreLost and Found
Again
Antonio Attisani
Translated
by Jane
House
EDITORS'NOTE:This
essay
is
partof
an
ongoingPAJ
serieson 'Art,
Spirituality,
and
in whichwe
plan
to
explore
artworksandart
practicescirculating
aroundthis
theme.The
digitalperformance
text,
The Birthof the Christ
Child, also
appearing
in
tothe
subject,
asisKarenWilkinsessayonPat
Lipskys
new
work.Theserieswasinitiatedin
PAJ
72
(2002)
with
publication
of
'Artas
Spiritual
Practice,
"a
panel
discussion
featuring
MeredithMonk,AlisonKnowles,ErikEhn,Linda
Montano,Eleanor
Heartney,
and moderated
by
BonnieMarranca,heldat the SoHo
gallery,
Location
One,
in November2001.
significar
per
verbanonsi
poria
. . .
(Passing beyond
the
human cannot be worded ...)
-Dante, Paradiso,I, 70-71, translated
by
Allen Mandelbaum
Trasumanar
If
Francis of Assisi
(1181-1226) had
been
considered as the initiator of modern
theatre and not
just
as an eccentric
saint,
Western theatre would never have
been the same. He would have started a
completely
different
performing
tradition. What
I
wish
to
outline here is not the
story
of that "if," but
simply
the
Franciscan idea of
theatre, or, rather,
of
performance.
Franciscan
theatricality
does
not consist of the illustration of an
ideological
statement
(a
concept
or a
text,
that
is,
a discourse), nor can
it
be reduced to the
simplicity
of the
exempla.
In other words,
it has
nothing
to do with
representation,
the foundation of Western
post-Renaissance
theatre. His
theatricality
consists of an incredible
variety
of
poetic
actionswith the
purpose
of
creating
a communal
experience
of transformation. His
theatricality
is
essentially
ecstatic, as actors and
spectators
have an intimate
comprehension
of a
religious event,
or
experience
a
state of
peaceful pleasure.
However, one has to
acknowledge
that the
transformation
is
obtained
through
the activation of the senses
and the creation
of
an aesthetic structure, that is, the creation of form. Another
important
issue to
point
out is that the
participants
in this theatre do not
experience
or
conceptualize
the event to the same
degree
but, rather,each has his or her own
unique experience, taking part
in the event as one "character"
among
others.
48 *
PAJ
73 (2003),
pp.
48-60.
? 2003
Performing
Arts
Journal,
Inc.
Religion"
thisissue,isanother
approach
One of the
purposes
of this
essay
is to
suggest
that
although
Francis's
conception
of
"theatre"was
neglected through
the
passage
of
time,
it nevertheless remained fertile
ground
for Western theatre and
reappeared
with some
force in the
twentieth-century
avant-garde,
which
fought,
as we
know,
against
recitation and
representation.
Thus,
I am led to consider Franciscan
performance
as fundamental to Western
culture,
although
it is still
largely
unknown and undervalued as such, and to
contemplate
a
Francis who is far removed from the
popular
view of him as
patron
saint of
pan-
ecological protest
movements.
the Franciscan
Weltanschuaungwasbeyond comprehension.
And even
if Francesco di
Bernardone,
as he was also
known,
had described himself and his
brethren as "actors"rather
than
"jongleurs
of
God"
(joculatores
Domini),1
it
would
not have altered the fact of his censure and his
subsequent
canonization
by
the
Roman Catholic church-or the fact that his Cantico delle creature
(Canticle
of
Creatures)
is now considered one of the
precursors
of vernacularliterature.
Nor is it
likely
that this revised
description
would have influenced the work of
scholars. In our own time, loan P.Couliano
in
his
SpiritualJourneys,
a brilliant
study
of ecstatic methods and their shamanistic roots
throughout
the
world,
never
mentioned Francis because he did not leave behind
any
texts that addressed such
topics.2
While Erich Auerbach did include him in his tract on realism in Western
literature,
he limited his comments to Francis's
scanty
writings.3
And Ivan Illich4
wrote on
"layalphabetization"
and
"religiousalphabetization,"
medieval
Europe
and
modernity,
the birth of the
publishing industry,
and of
reading,
without
taking
into
consideration the Franciscancontribution.
Francis was not concerned with the written word; he conceived of life, his own as
well as that of the
good
Christian and in
primis
that of the
brethren,
as a
"revolutionaryperformance,"
in other
words, as
an action
that
changes
the lives of
the
participants
in a manner that re-actualizesthe behavior of
Jesus
Christ and his
idea of
community.
There were a few scholars who
recognized
the
primary place
of
performance
in his life. For
instance, Auerbach stated
clearly
that,
"everything
he did
was a scene. And his scenes were of such
power
that he carried
away
with him all
who saw them or
only
heard of them."5
However,
most scholars have
ignored
the
originality
of the theatrical elements in
these "scenes."
They emphasize,
rather,that
Francis
attempted
to
represent
Jesus Christ, that is,
duplicate
the
images
of his
life,
ratherthan
emphasizing
that he wanted to realizehere and now the same
principles,
which is not the same
thing.
From the thirteenth
century
onwards,
artworks
were no
longer
created
by anonymous
artists, and authors become more and more
impor-
tant. For
Francis,
performance
was a
way
of
being
that transformed
reality;
whereas
the new authored form of
performance
became the
"acting
as," the
representation-
illustration of some
texts,
or
ideas-a fictional mode
requiring
its own
specialists
and
professionals.
ATTISANI / Franciscan
Performance
M 49
Since Western civilization based its construction of
modernity
and the societe
disciplinaire
(Michel Foucault)
on the
conspicuous duality
of the text and its
representation,
true
legacy
can be
explained,
at leastin
part,
by
the view that theatreis
somethingapart
from
history,having
its own narrative.
When consideredat all, Francis'sworkis
only
seenasevidenceof a
theatricality
that
came to its
maturity
in the Renaissancetheatre.One of the few
exceptions
is the
scholarChiara
Frugoni
who,
in
commendablytaking up
the theme of
Francis's
censurein orthodox ecclesiasticalworks, describes
how-beginning
in his own
day-angry
censors
attempted
to underminehis
teachings,
how he
escapedthem,
andhowhisworksurvivedas"non-text."Sheaffirms
the centralroleof
performance
behaviorin Franciscanwork and
explains
how the most
significantaspects
of this
theatricalform are
incompatible
with the values and behavioralmodels of the
Churchand of
judicialpower.7
the rich
typology
of Franciscan
performances
and to note their
underlying
similarities:
to eatfroma table
ladenwith white
napkins
and
glasses
ratherthanfromseated
positions
on the
floor,
Francis
pretended
to be a
pilgrim.
After
humblyasking
forsome food, he saton the
flooraloneand
put
his
cup
on the
ashes,
thus
demonstrating
the
proper
way
for a
FriarMinor to eat.8In this
way,
he overcamethe
apparentimpotence
of wordsto
affirmthe humblenessof the tableand
showed,by making
them believehim to be
someone else before
they recognized
him,
how the humble should behave.His
objective
was not
only
to set an
example
but also to lend to the
image
of
proper
behaviorthe
power
of
allegory
and thus make
somethingimmutably
understood.
The
purpose
of the actionand the
energyexpended
on it seem
typical
of a
simple
initiationrite,wherethe
comprehension
of a
principle
is
physically
transmitted.
thatthe brotherswere
preparing
effect in two areas-first with
regard
to the wealth
of
a Church
to which the FriarMinorswishedto
belong
but
which
they
criticizedfor behaviorthatwasat oddswith
their
evangelicalteachings,
and
second,
with
regard
to Francis'sown
reputation
for saintliness.
Noteworthy
is
the
symbolicimportance
of the
spatialsequenceduring
the entireevent:first,
the
elevated
podium,
an area
designated
for
declamatoryspeech,
where
Francis
preached;
then the
crypt,
the
deepestplace,
situatedbeneaththe altar,whereFrancis
revealedhis nakednessand donned the noose of the condemned
man;
and
finally,
the
way
out to the horizontallevelof the
crowd,
which is at one andthe sametime
both a
disorderlyplace
and a
place
where
genuine feelings
of
understanding
and
compassion
canbe evoked.Thus,the
stages
of the
journey
were
transformed
into as
50
*
PAJ 73
form"
prevalent
at the time.6The failureof
most
scholarship
to
recognize
Francis's
Auerbachwrites:"Thecoreof his
being
andthe
impact
of his life arecentered
upon
the will to a radical and
practical
imitation of Christ" in contrast to the
"predominantlymystico-contemplative
Itwouldbe
useful,
at this
point,
to describesomesceneswhichdemonstrate
(1)
One
Easter,
upondiscovering
(2)
On another
occasion,
when he was exhausted
by
the
quartan
ague (febbre
quartana)
and
suspected
he had
been
givenspecial
treatment,
he called
together
the
people
of Assisi.After
preaching
to
them,
he hadhimself
dragged
naked
through
the
crowdand
charged
himselfbeforethem with
having
eatenmeat.9While this scene
had shock value,
it also
produced
an "alienation"
manysymbolic
moments,
and
presented
not in the usualformof
intellectual
exegesis,
butasa concrete
theatrical
allegory.
the
ideological
dimensionof
thesermon.After
yielding
to the
pleadings
of severalnunsthathe address
transcended
them,
he
thathisaudienceofwomen
might
bedistracted
byseeing
theFatherandthe
in theconventional
way
itsessential
meaning
might
belostin deadwords.Sohe
adopted
a solutionthatwas
quite
different
from
any
used
up
to thattime:he traceda circle
of
ashes
on thefloor
andstoodstilland
silentatitscenterforso
long
a timethattheentirehushed
assembly
was
brought
to
tears.Thesilencewasfollowed
by
a
psalm,presented
asan
intense,
moving
chant.'?
is the creatorof a voice
and
figure,
conceivedas
empty
receptacle,
whichdrawin andholdthebreathof
God;thus,
theeventinstillsfresh
life in a servicethatwasat riskof
losing
its
power
in
repetitiveceremony.
The
conditionedmindis trickedandbefuddled
by
a
sight
which,rather
than
filling
the
spectators'
mindsand
accosting
their
senses,empties
them so
they
can havea
transcendent
experience.
in the
creationof a
dramathatwould
help
themunderstandwhatthe
night
of the birthof
Jesus
was
like.
People
wereaskedto reconstruct
to accounts
by
Tommasoda CelanoandBonventura
a
community
was
actively
da
Bagnoregio,"
underFrancis's
instructions,
involved
the crib
physically
and then
perform
the
it withthe
eyes
of
the
body"(with
their
senses),
as Francis
said,
and
participate
and
especially
the
simple
folk,could"see
in the
epiphanic
encounterbetweenthe mundaneandthe divine.At the endof this
performance-
play
in
which
everyone
was
an
actor-andhence,
in
whichtherewasno audience-
Francis
gave
instructions
to leavethe crib
empty,
so as to avoidthe
danger
of
to
"see"
the
Genuinewith
the
eyes
of the soul
(mentally
or
intellectually),
which
occurredafterhis
chanting
and
preaching.
thefictionfor
reality.According
to
him,
onecouldachieve
the
capacity
In thislast
example,
weencounter
two
aspects
of
theatrical
performance:
first,asan
artformwhichalterstheactor's
stateof
consciousness,making
himorhersee
(the
and
second,
as a
teaching
tool that makesa
lesson
manifest
(and
thusmakesit
lasting).
The latter
aspect
wasoftencharacteristic
experience);
of
Franciscan
performance.
Francis
is a creatorof
allegories
thatcontain
symbols
and
metaphors
whichhaveautonomous
valuesof their
own,
the
allegorybeing
not a
lesson"but
essentially
a
synchronic
composition
with a
logical
figurative
orderthateach
spectator
must
interpret
forhimselforherself.12
Beginning
in thesixteenth
century,
theatreasa
way
of
teaching
was
adapted-and
ideologicalbacking-for
didacticdrama,first in a
Jesuit
compass,
andlater
by
theatresof
pre-eminently
ideological
mold,aboveall,butnot
only,by
the
twentieth-century
agit-prop
theatreof theleftandthe
right.
However,
ATTISANI I Franciscan
Performance
*
51
(3)
Another
example
showshowFrancis
realized
Manandthatwereheto
give
asermon
In this
example,
Francis
(4)
A
veryspecialperformance
was that of the constructionof the firstcrib.
According
eventsso that
everyone,
mistaking
transcendental
"literal
given sophisticated
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