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GREEK AND ROMAN ACTORS: ASPECTS OF AN ANCIENT PROFESSION. Edited by Pat Easterling and Edith Hall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002; pp. xxxi + 510. $100.00 cloth.
Theatre was arguably the most ephemeral cultural product of the ancient world. Its fragmentary remains record only the libretti of a complex art that included recitation, instrumental and vocal music, dancing, and gesture. Consequently, it is easy for philologists to forget that these texts, which we subject to microscopic inspection, were embodied by actors whose techniques can only be imperfectly known. There have been attempts at recreation: theatre practitioner Peter Meineck argues that masks prevented actors from interacting in the realistic manner of modern Western theatre, compelling them to address the audience directly. Most contemporary productions of ancient drama, however, even with masks, rely on contemporary conventions. We may no more want to recreate an authentic version of a Greek tragedy or Roman pantomime than follow an ancient recipe for fish stew; the results might be far too strange for modern tastes. Still, the questions surrounding ancient acting are intriguing and important, and as this impressive collection of twenty essays demonstrates, can be answered with a fair degree of ingenuity and insight.
This is not a comprehensive reference work, as the editors admit, but rather a collection of essays which complement and enhance each other. Themes and resonances throughout the collection produce a cohesive and wide-spanning view of an ancient lost art. There are three sections: "The art of the actor"; "The professional world"; and "The idea of the actor." The first two essays treat the musical aspects of acting....