Cronache d’inizio Novecento. Appunti su Alessandro Varaldo e l’attore

Theatre criticism of the beginning of the 20. century focused on dramatic texts more than actors, Alessandro Varaldo represents an interesting case. Dramatist, poet, novelist, Varaldo was the theatre critic of «Il corriere di Genova» from 1903 to 1910. Here, in his several reviews and in some of his Profili d’attore (later collected in a book), he appears as a very penetrating and sharp observer of the scene and, most of all, a passionate critic of the actors and the acting style of his time. Virgilio Talli, Ruggero Ruggeri, Antonio Gandusio, Virginia Reiter, Oreste Calabresi, Ugo Piperno, Emma e Irma Gramatica, Lyda Borelli, Eleonora Duse, in particular, give him the opportunity to deal with some of the crucial questions of the Italian theatre of the period: the transformation of the role system; the modernization of the ‘brillante’; the continuing relevance of the questions raised by Diderot in the Paradox of Acting (translated by Varaldo for the first Italian edition); the study of the character by actors and the process of shaping the type; the break with the 19.century tradition of the ‘grande attore’ and the need for a new acting style, but also the critic’s difficulty in evaluating stage performance and its rules and the work of the actors