Roman Theatre in Greek, Greek Theatre in Italian: Dramatic Performance as a Vehicle of Latin-Greek Contact in the Early Modern Ionian Islands

Abstract

Theatre in the early modern Ionian Islands was predicated on the mixing of elite Italian-speakers and non-elite Greek-speakers during carnival festival performances and other annual celebrations. The position of the islands as a Venetian territory meant that they developed a theatrical infrastructure in the style of Western Europe during the eighteenth century. Roman antiquity carried a greater cultural capital for local elites than elsewhere in Greece because of Latin’s prime position as a classical language in Western European education. Furthermore, the importance of Roman comedy and tragedy to playwrights such as Molière, Diderot, Goldoni, and Shakespeare influenced Ionian theatrical tastes. Although classical Greek drama may have been performed, this was often in Italian translation for the benefit of the local Venetian authorities, while Greek-language adaptations of Roman plays are also documented. A consideration of three such productions from Zakynthos (1571, 1820s) and Kefalonia (1732) demonstrates educated local translators’ investment in the Roman legacy as a mark of European cultural identity, and their concurrent desire that Latin drama be accessible to Greek-speaking audiences. It also shows that Greek-speaking Ionian audiences did not automatically view the dramatic legacy of Ancient Greece as their rightful or sole theatrical inheritance, contrary to how theatrical life would develop in the nineteenth-century Kingdom of Greece.

KEYWORDS: classical reception; modern Greek theatre; translation; Ionian Islands; Venetian Empire