Quis Hic Loquitur? Plautine Delivery and the “Double Aside” C.W. Marshall When an actor puts on a mask for a Roman theatrical perform- ance, a spotlight, in effect, is created.! Like a spotlight, a mask can ‘This paper was otiginally delivered at the Crassing the Stages conference in Saska- toon, Saskatchewan, in October, 1997, and was prepared at Concordia University in Monttéal, and at the Memotial University of Newfoundland in St. Joho’s, Much of what is here discussed is drawn from my experience directing Piautus in out- door, masked productions: Curcufio (Peter L. Smith, translator; C.W. Marshall, di- rector and producer, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario; March 1996); Asi naria (Peter L. Smith, translator, C.W. Marshall, director and producer, University of Victoria, Victoria, B.C; March 1997). As a result, I must recognize a considerable clement of subjectivity in what I say: merely because an effect worked (or failed to work) in my productions docs not prescribe how Plautus must have staged the play. Nevertheless, it is possible to use the productions as experiments, to test hy- potheses about ancient performance, and theteby cortobotate and modify conclu- sions that would otherwise remain theoretical, All citations of Plautus are from W. M. Lindsay’s OCT (Oxford 1904-05), I offer particular thanks to Peter I. Smith for invaluable discussion and for petmission to use his unpublished translations of Asinaria and Curculio here, to my fellow editots for their valuable comments, and to the actors who suffered through what were at times sub-zero temperatures during performance in order to get a laugh. 1 I do not believe the scant evidence that might suggest Plautus’ actors would not have worn masks. Every staged petformance tradition in Greece and Rome106 Syllecta Classica 10 (1999) be seen from a great distance away. A mask on a stage draws and holds the audience’s attention: “The wide-eyed gaze of the tragic [or comic] mask does not scatter or divide, but focuses and encompasses, compelling the attention of the entire theatre.”* The mask fills space and commands notice, and makes the character it represents appear larger than life. This is true in varying degtees with any given mask, and is clearly so when compated to an unmasked face. The fact that ancient performances wete masked, wete out of doots, and em- ployed an acting style that was not naturalistic by modern standards (in that no passer-by could ever confuse a theatrical scene for a non- theatrical event from real life) are three related factors in a complex of concomitant features that exist for mutually dependent reasons. The “spotlight” metaphor also points to the fact that masks function better without the artifice of modern (indoor) lighting techniques. While modern stage lighting can create mood and emotion in an un- masked theater, a general wash of light, such as is provided by day- light, allows a mask to change appearance much more effectively than modern indoor lighting techniques can. used masks, and anything else would have been inconceivable, Greck New Com- edy and the fabulae Atellanae were masked theater traditions, and these were Plautus’ principal influences. Further, later Roman New Comedy was masked, It seems perverse to propose an intermediary uomasked stage of comic development. cf, AS.P, Gow, “On the Use of Masks in Roman Comedy,” JRS 2 (1912) 65-77; George B. Duckworth, The Nature of Roman Comedy: A Study in Popular Entertain ment (Princeton 1952; "Norman, OK 1994) 92-94; W, Beare, The Roman Stage, 3rd ed. (London 1964) 192-94, 303-09; H.D. Jocelyn, The Tragedies of Eunins (Cam- bridge 1967) 22 a. 1. 2 Rush Rehm, Greek Tragic Theatre (London and New York 1992) 40, I describe some of the ways masks work on the Greek stage in “Some Fifth-Century Mask- ing Conventions,” forthcoming in Ge*R 46 (1999) 188-202, 3 John Rudlin (Commedia dell’Arte: An Actor's Handbook {London and New York 1994] 165) discusses Edward Gordon Craig’s mask work, noting “it was reliance on facial acting, aided and abetted by artificial light, that in his view was preventing the actor from transcending personal emotional tics and patticipating fully as a plas- tic entity in the art of the scene.” He also cites Craig himself “Daylight is only for works of art; humbug works by artificial light” (Edward Gordon Craig, The Theatre Advancing (London 1921] 53). When I ditected Carealio at Treat University using masks, the importance of this became apparent duting a special performance of the play for an evening class. Our notmal performance space—out of doors, during theMarshall: Quis Hic Loquitur? 107 In addition to grabbing the audience’s attention, the spotlight ef- fect of a full mask also beams outwards, and this has three conse- quences affecting the delivery of lines. In the first place, the spotlight that emanates from a mask is a very natrow beam. From the audi- ence’s perspective, masks do not possess peripheral vision. Where the mask faces, in that direction alone can the character see what is on stage with him.‘ Part of the exaggerated acting style associated with masked performance is a consequence of this. Some masks, both in antiquity and among the halfmasks used by the Commedia dell’Arte, have large and prominent noses that emphasize this effect, pointing in the direction that the character sees,> Rudlin describes this effect from an actor’s perspective:s In order to understand how its gaze works, it is importaot to appreciate that the mask has only one eye—which you need to imagine as situated at the end of the nose .... The world ceases to have dimension and the only means of finding your way around is to “follow your nose.” day-—was replaced this once with an indoor location, and suddenly the acting style the actors were using became incongruous for this new space. They were simply “too big’: formerly sympathetic chatactets became ovetacted gtotesques when placed in front of a teal, human-sized doorway. 4 Tuse the masculine ptonoun throughout, since all ancient masked actors were male, even if their characters were not. What is true of the chatactet’s vision may also be true for the actor. 3 The longer the nose of the mask, the mote stupid it is, and the more neces- sary it is to reduce the range of your own thought processes in order to let it play, sather than have to suffer your cleverness at its expense” (Rudlin [above, note 3] 40). For the Curculio mask, Michael Hendry suggested to me that the mask should include a long, phallic, ptoboscis-like nose, reminiscent of the eponymous boll weevil. This suggestion was adopted in making the mask, and the result was visu- ally successful. What I am therefore suggesting for Cutculio is quite different from the distinctive mask for the flatterer and parasite in Greek New Comedy, which has a “broad and prominent broken nose ... [which] appears squashed” (T\B.L. Webster, Monuments Tustrating New Comedy, 3rd ed. revised and enlarged by JR. Green and A, Seeberg [BICS Supplement 50; London 1995}, vol. 1, 22-23), if Pollux is to be believed (cf. Marshall [above, note 2] note 33). 6 Rudlin (above, note 3) 40.