Etudes Epistémè (Dec 2022)
Une scène pour tous les genres : le théâtre de Luigi Groto
Abstract
Luigi Groto (Adria, 1541 – Venice, 1585) was an internationally renowned poet and orator in his time, and his works have been translated into several languages. He was also a playwright, actor, and stage director. His multiple activities within the world of theatre are even more remarkable considering the fact that he was blind from birth, as indicated by his nickname, « Cieco d’Adria », i.e. « the blind man from Adria ». This contribution analyses three of the eight plays he authored, namely the pastoral drama Il Pentimento amoroso (1576), the tragedy Adriana (1578) and the comedy Il Tesoro (1583). The presence in these texts of references to the cultural life of his city and to contemporary debates will be the object of a closer scrutiny. Groto strongly supports the didactic function of theatre: first as an instrument to educate the actors – often young people from the city – and secondly as a means to convey important lessons to the spectators, while entertaining them. He affirms with the same conviction the need for young women to attend performances, too. For them, theatre was useful in view of both their intellectual and moral training. The insistence on the topic of forced marriage, bitterly criticized, gives us the image of a society that is changing, and in which young women want to freely decide of their lives and are ready to lose them to claim their independence.
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