Scandal and rebellion in the theatrical event : the Maltese carnival

Abstract

Willmar Sauter (2004) defines playing culture as action that is transferred from one generation to another through tacit knowledge, where the physical experience is fundamental to the generation and transmission of play. The cultural experience of play and playfulness, which is intrinsic to theatre and theatricality, is also a central feature of Carnival. During the Carnival celebrations, action and spectacle imply close interaction between performers and spectators in an atmosphere of play, where in certain cases, a passive watcher can transform into an active protagonist and vice-versa. Andreas Kotte ranges theatrical events from absolute play (2014: 43)1 – the play of children and animals – to theatre along an axis determined by ‘emphasised action’ which takes into account the degree and quality of interaction between actors and spectators (2010: 17). Carnival’s playful interaction is closer to absolute play than theatrical representation. However, its theatrical qualities render it an action that is gesturally, spatially and acoustically ‘emphasised’ (Kotte 2010: 45) through the actions of the participants in the streets, and the music and shouting that accompanies the celebrations. Moreover, as Henri Schoenmakers points out, pretence in the theatre (and, by extension, in a theatrical event) foregrounds and celebrates the human capacity to act ‘as if’ (2014, 226); this is also partly characteristic of Carnival, where costume, mask or make up allow a person to act ‘as if’ in another spatio-temporal dimension, allowing for the adoption of what Eugenio Barba calls ‘extra-daily’ behaviour (2005: 7). Through their actions, participants become performers, facilitated by the disguise which emphasises their presence and often, but not always, hides their true identity. Although Carnival fun lasts as long as the Carnival itself, its consequences may linger on, especially if certain features have been particularly remarkable through the effect they have produced, which can be of an aesthetic, social or political nature, as in the case, for example, of satire. As other forms of the performing arts, it is ‘a process, which changes continually through its existence’ (Eversmann 2004: 141) through the actions and reactions of performers and beholders. This chapter will deal particularly with an event, the Maltese Carnival in 1846, which provoked what shall be termed as ‘a layering of scandals’ from opposing parties. The process of action and re-action will be reconstructed through the information provided by the primary sources, and the norms and values that caused the scandals at the different layers will be discussed. In this discussion we will return to the distinction Henri Schoenmakers made in his contribution to this publication between aesthetic and non-fiction concerns.