STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
ANNEX 2 - SECTION D:
BACK TO RITUAL – BACK TO EUROPEAN TRADITIONS
Traditional street art forms composing the European heritage: How have street artists in
contemporary creation rediscovered these forms?
Synthesis paper by Stanislav Bohadlo – January 2007 – in the framework of the study “Street
Artsists in Europe”
“The theatre should be
the common ritual action
of both actors and spectators”
A. Artaud
1. Introduction
The article on street theatre is still missing in the Taylor’s The Penquin Dictionary of Theatre
published in1979 249 , though the new phenomenon had well-known historical roots and period
production elsewhere. What is worse, the chapter on street theatre is missing even in the Oscar
G. Brockett’s History of the Theatre Inc. 1999.
Masks, outdoor playing and the close and participating audience define the pagan and antiquity
transformation of the human behavior from the ritual patterns and tribe or society functions into
the medieval (church mask-faces), renaissance, baroque and new age masks and street theatre
acting. They reflect the similar needs for common and socially open mirror of the society. The
in-between period of acting inside the theatre-building represented the structured, ruling
aesthetics dependent, institutionalized and socially determined form of the theatre for certain
and special audience. The Dionysus processions in ancient classical Greek are surprisingly akin
to the contemporary actions on the European street performances for gathered crowds, applying
many similar features, situations and tools such as masks, costumes, close interaction with
viewers, combination of dance, singing, music, circus, magic, tilt-walkers, juggling, happenings,
water areas, smoke, fireworks, improvisation and masks again to create the spontaneous ritual
for everyone.
2. What is the most traditional in European theatre history?
Looking at the Encyclopaedia Britannica 1 st edition of 1771, the standard definition of a
theatre 250 emphasizes the “public edifice” where the action is performed. After that the qualities
of actors, the play and finally the whole area connected to actors and spectators are mentioned.
This is the concept maintained in ancient Greek theatres, overtaken by renaissance theatres such
as Gonzaga’s one in Sabbionetta or Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. The same
definition works well for the public and/or court baroque theatre and opera, the same for the
Enlightment (Classicist) theatre and opera, romantic performances and even most of 20 th century
productions. The theatre building and its lay-out have been a typical mechanism for social
divided people since the early history. In fact, such a lay-out is a mirror of the society estates
and classes throughout centuries. There is the VIP row, there are rich ticket owners in other
front rows, there is a special ruler box, other levels of boxes for nobility or modern notables, top
249 Taylor, John Russell: The Penquin Dictionary of Theatre, Handmondworth, London, 1979.
250 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol III, Edinburgh 1771, p. 895.
145
PE 375.307