Macaroni and sausages – Mr. Punch’s journey from Napoli to somewhere-on-sea
Join award-winning actor, academic, playwright, director, theatre designer, reviewer, and onetime showman, flyman and rigger, John Rudlin for a fabulous journey into the life and times of the outrageous Mr Punch! A renowned expert in Italian commedia dell’arte, John traces Mr Punch’s origins in the Italian theatre through to the supposedly English tradition of a loveable but murdering slapstick puppet. John will also take more than a glance at the women in Mr Punch’s life.
In his little booth, Punch is today the sole performing survivor in England of the great theatrical genre of commedia dell’arte, which dominated the European stage for almost three centuries. John Rudlin is an acknowledged expert in the form – his Commedia dell’arte, a Handbook for Actors has been continuously in print for forty years. (See www.commediahandbook.com). He is the current holder of the Society For Theatre Research Stephen Joseph award.
Speaker Bio:
John Rudlin is the author of numerous books, articles, and chapters, including Jacques Copeau (CUP, 1986); Copeau, Texts on Theatre (Routledge, 1990); Commedia dell’Arte, an actor’s handbook (Routledge, 1994); Commedia dell’Arte, a resourcebook for troupes (Routledge, 2001); Commedia dell’Arte: its structure and tradition, John Rudlin in conversation with Antonio Fava (Routledge, 2021); The Metamorphoses of Commedia dell’Arte: whatever happened to Harlequin? (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2022).Checkout John’s website for more publications – including his keynote addresses: ‘Flour Sacks and Farthingales’ for the conference Crossing Boundaries: Commedia Dell’ Arte Across Gender, Genre, and Geography (University of Windsor, Ontario, 2013) and ‘Jacques Copeau’s Legacy to Theatre and Education’ for The Actor as Person, Theatre as Communion (University of Notre Dame, Indiana, 2013) – available at www.commediahandbook.com
Curated & Hosted by:
Marguerite Johnson is a cultural historian of the ancient Mediterranean, specialising in sexuality and gender, particularly in the poetry of Sappho, Catullus, and Ovid, as well as magical traditions in Greece, Rome, and the Near East. She also researches Classical Reception Studies, with a regular focus on Australia. In addition to ancient world studies, Marguerite is interested in sexual histories in modernity as well as magic in the west more broadly, especially the practices and art of Australian witch, Rosaleen Norton. She is Honorary Professor of Classics and Ancient History at The University of Queensland, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
