ABSTRACT

Richard Andrews puts the matter succinctly when, writing of the sixteenth century in Italian theatre, he notes that it was an age of radical innovations which have had 'a fundamental effect on performed art in what we now think of as Western culture and civilisation'. Vito Pandolfi is the renowned author of important works on commedia dell'arte. He acknowledged the paucity of acknowledged masterpieces in Italian playwriting as compared to England, but viewed Renaissance theatre in Italy as an opportunity missed or suppressed. Renaissance theatre in Italy laid the groundwork for the development of modern theatre as such, while the contemporary English theatre of the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages produced a plethora of playwrights of genius whose works have been the staple of theatre programmes everywhere ever since. Pandolfi identifies the crucial, identifying role of the 'Maschere' in Italy in giving the specific stamp to Italian theatre, and in creating an actor-centred theatre.