Free Theodora: Empress of Byzantium (Mark Magowan Books) by Paolo Cesaretti Page B

“she immediately became admired” in the theaters of Constantinople’s suburbs, far from the monumental and intellectual center of the great Christian Roman capital. Perhaps one of the theaters was in Sykae (today’s Galata), beyond the Golden Horn, and another in the northern district of the city outside the walls, in Blachernae. Now Theodora’s qualities were recognized even by the first of her detractors, Procopius, who writes:
    Later on she was associated with the actors in all the work of the theater, and she shared their performances with them, playing up to their buffoonish acts intended to raise a laugh. For she was unusually clever and full of gibes, and she immediately became admired for this sort of thing. For the girl had not a particle of modesty, nor did any man ever see her embarrassed, but she undertook shameless services without the least hesitation, and she was the sort of a person who, for instance, when being flogged or beaten over the head, would crack a joke over it and burst into a loud laugh; and she would undress and exhibit to any who chanced along both her front and her rear naked, parts which rightly should be unseen by men and hidden from them. 4
    The mimes were allowed to stage this type of show, and the productions were financially lucrative, so clearly the public did not spend all its time fretting over political issues and theological disputes, as gloomy official histories, chronicles, and scholarly tracts would have usbelieve. People were interested in things other than culture, solemnity, and virtue.
    The low esteem in which theater actors were held in the Roman era and in late antiquity, banished as they were to the margins of cultural life and to the bottom of the social ladder, is reflected in the lack of historical sources about this light entertainment. Except for Sophron, Eronda, and Theocritus (who all preceded Theodora by eight to ten centuries), mime theater pieces were not elaborately collected, transcribed, and studied, as were classical works. Therefore, the scripts were written only for the internal use of the acting crews, who, like Theodora, did know how to read.
    Those who claimed to defend proper “values” had a further reason to denigrate the mime. According to these moralists, the mime drew his expressivity not from the strength of a fine voice reverberating behind a stage mask, but from the deforming of a face exposed to the public, in imitation of everyday attitudes and behavior. (The root of
imitate, mimêsis,
is linked to
mime
.) Instead of the stock, draped costumes used for the mythical characters of ancient theater, the mimes used everyday clothes, and the actresses (the mime was the first theater genre open to women) were scantily clad in particularly see-through attire—when they wore anything at all. For in the show’s grand finale the actresses stripped off their clothes and paraded around.
    The stage where Theodora was now a protagonist did not require speeches. When picturing what the theater was like then, one should imagine neither Theodora’s voice nor anyone else’s, but only noises. Instead of noble poses, there was a flurry of frenetic gestures. Laughter alternated with crying, and there were chases and running, shuffling about, loud slaps on cheeks, the dull thump of a punch, someone being tripped, the perfect arc of a somersault. The actors bugged out their eyes and rolled them wildly; they clapped their hands over their ears to block out the ruckus on stage; they crossed their arms or rested them on their hips to signify authority or demand respect; they raised a finger to point or scold. And all the movements were underscored by the jingle of
sistra
and cymbals.
    Sometimes, the scripts expanded the duets that young Theodorahad performed with Comito. For these plays, more actors and richer settings were required. In those years, mimes were referred to as “biological,” meaning that they mimed
bios
, “daily life.” Caricatures and