Convent Theatre in Early Modern Italy: Spiritual Fun and Learning for Women by Elissa B. Weaver (review)

Abstract

MLR, 99.3, 2004 803 Convent Theatre in Early Modern Italy: Spiritual Fun and Learning for Women. By Elissa B. Weaver. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2002. xiii + 304pp. ?45. ISBN 0-521-55082-3. Elissa Weaver's pioneering study is a much-needed work that throws light on an almost completely unexplored area of literary and historical research. In a clear and enj oyable style, Weaver takes the reader through the history of Tuscan convent theatre between the mid-fifteenth and the mid-seventeenth centuries. She shows that nuns were engaged in many cultural and artistic activities, including commissioning, writ? ing, and performing theatrical representations that took place in the closed spaces of their convents. She examines the major developments in the genres of convent theatrical production?mainly sacre rappresentazioni, spiritual comedies, and some farces?and illustrates how convent theatre dealt with a variety of topics: lives of saints and virgin martyrs, episodes from the holy scriptures, stories of women who had unhappy marriages and took the vows. These stories were deemed appropri? ate and interesting for the convent audience and some female external associates. Drawing on a corpus of over fiftytexts, mostly unpublished and including anonymous and undated works, she points out the increasing interest in publishing convent plays throughout the seventeenth century. Although Weaver stresses that not all con? vent authors possessed literary talent or professional ability, we do learn about many well-known, and some less-known, nun playwrights, such as Antonia Tanini Pulci, Raffaella de Sernigi, Beatrice del Sera, Maria Clemente Ruoti, and Annalena Odoaldi. One of the most important aspects of this book is that it highlights the specificity of convent theatre and, at the same time, its relevance to and exchanges with the sur? rounding secular world. The nuns' theatrical tradition needs to be understood within the circumscribed context in which it was born: it owed its existence to the female monastic community's need for a 'feminine subculture'. Indeed, convent plays held a primary function in offeringthe nuns 'good fun [. . .] so they may improve them? selves' (p. 62) and promoting their spiritual and literary education, as well as being formidable antidotes against the boredom of cloistered life. But this literary tradi? tion was in close touch with wider society. Convent theatre followed the mainstream genres of society outside, borrowed and adapted texts, and gained inspiration from the literarycommunity beyond the cloister. Furthermore, Weaver emphasizes that the audience of convent plays included townswomen (female relatives and friends), and rarely men, who shared this theatrical culture with the nuns. In debatingthe meaning of convent theatre and its connections with early modern society, she goes as far as offering an assessment of its place in the history of theatrical writing. Indeed, she suggests that the nuns' theatrical tradition may have been an important model forthe Jesuits, in their effortto make theatre a crucial part of their educational programme for the young male members of the European elites. Weaver's research has the further merit and originality of paying attention to the history of material culture and the circumstances of the performances. Her book provides many practical details of how performances were organized: their timing (Christmas, carnival, convent celebrations), the invitations posted up in the nuns' rooms informing them of the time and place of the performances, the props and cos? tumes used, stage installations, and sometimes the areas where they performed, such as the cloister loggia, or the courtyard. One can fully appreciate how nuns managed to express their creativity and benefit from theatre, in spite ofthe obvious limitations of their physical segregation. Perhaps the only slight disappointment is the concluding chapter, on convent theatre beyond Tuscany. Here Weaver limits herself to mentioning some Italian and European examples, acknowledging that cloistered nuns propagated the theatrical tradition through the Catholic Church (i.e. their spiritual directors and confessors) 804 Reviews and their families, but without fully explaining exactly how they did this. This weak? ness apart, Spiritual Fun remains a wonderful example of how to use literature and history to understand early modern theatre, as well as the gendered dimension of the ltalian cultural tradition. University of Birmingham Silvia Evangelisti Lafigura della donna nel teatro di Eduardo...