**5. The Salesians'** *Teatrino* **and Its Educational Purposes**

*Christus Iudex* and *Ignatius arma mutans* are but two examples of the educational and spectacular nature of Jesuit theatre. The Jesuits' use of theatre became such a distinctive and successful trait of their programme of education that it influenced other religious orders devoted to the education of youth as well: the Scolopians, for example, and the Barnabites, the Somaschans and the Salesians. The Salesians, in particular, stand out for their use of theatre as part of their educational programme because it was directed towards both young men and women, in a tradition that started from their origins and continues until today.

In 1859, the future saint Giovanni Bosco founded the Society of St Francis de Sales, commonly known as the Salesians of Don Bosco, an order devoted to the education of boys and young men of the most disadvantaged classes. A few years later, together with the future saint Maria Domenica Mazzarello, Don Bosco also founded the order of the Daughters of Mary Helper of Christians, also known as the Salesian sisters, which would instead be devoted to the education of girls and young women.<sup>29</sup> Whereas the Jesuits were born to confront the social and religious fragmentation caused by the Protestant Reformation, the Salesians came about at the time when the Industrial Revolution had created a new urban lower class. The two Salesian orders were different from the Jesuits in as much as they worked with both young men and women, particularly of the lower classes, and not just in schools, but also in the so-called oratories, or youth centers where both students and young workers could spend their free time in a safe environment, away from the dangers of the streets. The Salesian orders were similar to the Jesuits, however, in that they confronted the challenges of their time with the use of theatre within their educational programs.

Together with study, work, play and physical activity, theatre was in fact, from the beginning, an integral part of Don Bosco's "preventive system" of education, which "rejected corporal punishment and strove to place youths in surroundings that removed them from the likelihood of committing sin" (Fardellone 1967, p. 714). Salesian educational theatre, however, did not solely attempt to prevent evil. It also endeavored to offer youth positive alternatives, supported by the continued presence of educators, who would associate with the young people both inside and outside the classroom (Lenti 2008, pp. 159–60). Moreover, in a recently united Italy, where less than 3 per cent of the population could read and write Italian, theatre was used not only to entertain, but also to transmit the Catholic message and stories even to the young and illiterate (Pivato 1993, pp. 446–48).

Like the Jesuits before them, the Salesians preferred single gender casts in their theatre for both moral and practical reasons: to avoid promiscuity among young people, and to facilitate rehearsal time, as schools, oratories and vocational centers in Italy were all single gender until the mid-1960s. Thus, dozens of Salesian priests and sisters took it upon themselves to create hundreds of single-gender plays or to adapt the classics for all-male or all-female casts, plays that would then be published in one of the many Salesian publishing venues and thus be spread in the Salesian schools and oratories throughout the country. Like Jesuit theatre, the educational message of Salesian theatre often addressed not only individual behaviors, but also societal and political concerns. As in the Counter-reformation years the Jesuits had included in their plays a condemnation of the enemies of the Church—Muslims as well as Protestants—in the 19th and 20th centuries the Salesians would now have to fight Protestantism, atheism and communism.

Other characteristics of Salesian theatre, however, mark it as significantly different from the Jesuit model: one is the avoidance of violent situations that might negatively affect young people. Don Bosco called his educational theatre *teatrino* (little theatre) to distinguish it from professional theatre and its often non-educational characteristics. Don Bosco's *teatrino* was meant to avoid situations that might "harden the hearts of the young people" or negatively affect their young sensibilities (quoted in Braido 1999). Again, as opposed to the spectacular nature of Jesuit theatre, Salesian theatre was characterized

<sup>29</sup> Don Bosco (1815–88) was canonised in 1934; Maria Mazzarello (1837–81) in 1951.

by its simplicity: the texts of the plays had to be suitable for the age and level of education of the young audience; costumes and settings could not require excessive expenses or create envy. Yet, in Don Bosco's mind, simplicity did not equate with poor planning or inadequate training: "I want [ . . . ] performances that are simple, not showy. When do simple things ever displease the audience? Usually when they are poorly performed or when the taste of the spectators has been tainted by gaudy shows" (quoted in Stagnoli 1967–1968, p. 142).

A discussion of the development of Salesian theatre is beyond the scope of this article which will, instead, consider only a few plays written by Salesian authors for all-female casts in a specific period of time, that of the post-WWII years. This was a difficult time for Italian society, which was going through a period of extreme poverty after the close of the war and the end of the fascist dictatorial regime. But a positive sense of renewal also pervaded the era, supported by a popular referendum in which women voted for the first time, choosing a republic over the monarchy, and the consequent writing of a new democratic constitution. The Salesians' care of the youth was particularly important in these post-war years, when countless families had been torn apart and many children left orphan or at risk. Plays written by Salesian sisters and directed to young women, in particular, made clear that certain pastimes which became more popular or more accessible in the post-war years, such as cinema and dancing, were to be avoided. And what better way to frighten young people away from movie theatres or dance halls than to portray these places as the earthly homes of infernal creatures?<sup>30</sup> In *La vittoria del bene* [The victory of the good] (1946), by sister Caterina Pesci (1906–1970),<sup>31</sup> for example, the devil explains that "our representatives here on earth are three: bad friendships, bad books, [and] bad shows. Among the latter, cinema is the most powerful". It is through cinema, the devil boasts, that "we demons un-Christianize the world. From this school graduate murderers, suicides, adulterers, thieves, dissolutes, and betrayers of every law and faith. This is the temple of paganism, brutalization, superstition and idolatry" (p. 7). But movie theatres were not the only entertainment places which Salesian theatre described as inhabited by devils. In *La rete di Satana* [Satan's Net] by sister Lina Dalcerri (1902–1998),<sup>32</sup> also of (Dalcerri 1946), the demons claim that their most effective way of conquering souls is through dance; dance-halls are their "kingdom". As a demon explains to his companions, "everything in here—from music and movements, to touches, gestures, words, looks, and attitudes—you need to make everything vibrate like the strings of an instrument, in an infernal note of malice and sin" (p. 25).<sup>33</sup>

As might well be expected in educational theatre, the ending of the two plays sees the demons defeated and virtue triumphant. What is significant in both, however, is that the victory of good,

<sup>30</sup> Other plays authored by Salesian sisters, on the other hand, staged guardian angels leading young women away from cinemas toward a life of purity, respect and church attendance. *La vera figlia di Maria* [The true daughter of Mary] (Pesci 1949) by Caterina Pesci consists of a dialogue between a girl and her guardian angel. Wishing to follow the Virgin Mary's example, the young protagonist declines her friends' offer to go to the cinema because a nun had said it was not a good film, and refuses to read the novel that one of them has left for her, sure that it would be of little value either. She throws it in the river, so that nobody will find it, and decides to read the Gospels instead. *In cammino con gli angeli* [Walking with angels] (Pesci 1955a) also by Caterina Pesci, portrays teenage Maria being tempted by a schoolmate who owns picture magazines, a radio and even a TV, and who has invited her to go by car to a meeting of a dubious nature. Maria's guardian angel warns her that those magazines are impure, that the television shows people who are not good; and Maria herself is aware that the association she has been invited to attend is led by godless people. Despite being sorely tempted by the novelty of the television, the protagonist ultimately manages to resist—thanks to the angel's inspiration—and even to convince two other friends not to yield to the temptation. Although no devils appear in this play, the underlying idea is that the bad press and the unnamed association are both manifestation of the devil's works.

<sup>31</sup> Ossi (1990) provides an exhaustive biography of Sr. Pesci in Italian. For a short biography in English, see Cavallaro (2017, pp. 228–29).

<sup>32</sup> See Cavallaro (2017, pp. 224–25) for a short biography of sister Dalcerri in English or Cavaglià (1999) in Italian.

<sup>33</sup> The author of this play appears to be quoting Don Bosco's warning against dancing with a person of the opposite sex. Drawing on the authority of classical authors and the fathers of the Church, Don Bosco described dancing as "very dangerous for morality and, like theatre or even more than theatre, a school of unrestraint, which every good Christian must avoid" (Bosco 1868). Although he had once written that "dancing in itself is not sinful if practised with a person of the same sex" (Bosco 1868), in the deliberations of the second general chapter of the Daughters of Mary Helper of Christians he stated that "as a general rule, dancing should not be allowed, not even among girls" (Bosco 1886).

announced already in the title of Pesci's play, is not obtained thanks exclusively to angelic intervention, but requires the active participation of the Salesian-educated young women on stage and among the audience. At the end of act 1 of *La vittoria del bene*, the audience witnesses how the angel on stage enlists young women who attend Salesian schools, to "renounce the evil shows, the forbidden books, the dangerous friendships" (Pesci 1946, p. 17), and promise to work as mothers and educators to raise their children or students according to the principles of the Catholic faith. *La rete di Satana* ends instead with the protagonist and her friends making a solemn vow in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary to never attend or participate in a dancing event. Thus, these Salesian educational plays have a double purpose: on the one hand, they are cautionary tales of the physical and spiritual dangers of dancing and going to the movies. On the other hand, the protagonists' vows pronounced on stage were meant to induce the members of the audience to renounce the temptation caused by dancing and cinema as well. In other words, the plays aim to affect a real conversion not only by scaring the young spectators off with demonic characters, but also by having the members of the audience join in the vow pronounced on stage by the young actresses.<sup>34</sup>

## **6. The Afterlife as Staged in the Salesian Sister's Theatre**

In addition to these and the many other plays that stage angelic and demonic influence in our daily lives, Salesian sisters also used images of the after-world to reach their goal of educating and converting young women in the post-war years. One drama and two comedies in particular may give us a good idea of what sort of behavior might guarantee a young Italian Catholic woman in the 1950–1960s a place in heaven, purgatory or hell.

*Interpretiamo Dante* [Let's stage Dante]<sup>35</sup> (1955b) by sister Caterina Pesci is a new take on Dante's depiction of the arrival of souls to the shores of purgatory, where the Roman orator Cato stands guard. During the course of the play, Cato interrogates six women's souls, choosing some to ascend to the mountain of purgatory and others to descend into eternal damnation, thus offering the young audience models with which to sympathize and others to avoid. The first three souls, Afrodisia, Russikà, and Abulìa, as their names suggest, were guilty of the sins of luxury, atheism and materialism, and cowardliness. The story of Afrodisia is quite appropriate for the young audience: heeding neither her mother nor her parish priest, at age 16 Afrodisia left school and ran away from home: "I told myself: why study and work? Why go to school every day? Someone whispered: 'You're beautiful. Come with me'" (p. 52). After a brief life of "flowers and jewels . . . riches and sins" (p. 52) Afrodisia lost her youthful beauty, fell into financial ruin and ultimately committed suicide. Russikà, on the other hand, recounts how even though Italian, she always took the part of Russia, to facilitate Russia's conquest of her country. In all reality, she reveals, she did not care for anybody, not even when protesting for the rights of the workers. Furthermore, Russikà would badmouth priests, nuns and especially the Pope. Even her funeral "without priests . . . red flags as far as the eye can see [ . . . ] and ultimately the very flames of cremation" (p. 52) symbolized her loyalty to the devil. Russikà, the play explicitly states, is among those souls destined to hell with no possibility of redemption. As Cato explains: "You preached the theories of the godless people, you deceived the weak and the ignorant. [ . . . ] you slandered God's ministers, you cursed the Pope, the Vicar of Christ, you betrayed your conscience and those of your compatriots. You've been excommunicated, you are more guilty than this miserable Afrodisia, who sought pleasure out of self-love. You ruined souls for the love of Satan . . . . [ . . . ] Go! Like Afrodisia you are destined to hell, but your hell will be incommensurably harder than hers" (p. 55).

If Afrodisia and Russikà end up condemned for what they did, Abulìa is convicted for what she did not do: she did not defend the Pope when others blasphemed him; and she did not speak

<sup>34</sup> On the inspirational effect of Salesian educational theatre on both actresses and audiences, see Cavallaro (2011), in particular page 37.

<sup>35</sup> The Italian title plays on the two meanings of the verb "interpretare" as both to stage and to interpret.

up against the godless people. While the word "communism" or "communists" is never specifically pronounced in this play, there is no doubt as to whom Abulìa should have stood up to. In the end, the demons come on stage and drag the screaming souls away toward eternal damnation. In particular Russikà, who during life insisted that nothing exists after death, exits the stage cursing the heretics, the godless and even herself.

The three women who will be allowed to proceed toward the mountain of purgatory, on the other hand, all bear names which refer to the Virgin Mary: Maria, Assunta and Concetta. Maria's sins are sculpted on her forehead: "frivolity, vanity, disobedience and laziness" (Pesci 1955b, p. 58); Assunta for a while was swayed by godless heresy, but later abandoned the error of her ways; Concetta, though a good wife who raised five children and died while reciting the rosary, still counted among her sins impatience, gossip and the occasional lie to her husband. These three souls are allowed to be purged of their sins and will eventually be admitted to the presence of God.

The choice of the shores of purgatory as a setting for a judgment play differentiates Salesian from Jesuit theatre. A shore with a dantescan mountain backdrop would have been easier to create than the infernal abyss. Moreover, as Salesian theatre aims to avoid violence and negative images, the play never actually shows the torments that await the sinners in hell. On the other hand, like *Christus Iudex*, *Interpretiamo Dante* displays the moment in which repentance is no longer possible. Again, as in Jesuit theatre, the Salesian play refers to both the personal and the political; on the level of personal behavior, it condemns frivolity and sensuality, shows that repentance in this life is possible, and presents imperfect but still forgivable role models of wives and mothers, who pray the rosary and travel to Rome to see the Pope. On the political level, the play attacks both the supporters of the "godless heresy"—published in 1955, the play perfectly stages the ideological division of Italy during the cold war—and those who do nothing to stop it. Like Dante and the Jesuit playwrights, sister Caterina Pesci condemns these current enemies of the Church to hell. But perhaps even more interestingly, sister Pesci also condemns Dante if not to hell, at least to many years in purgatory. At the end of Caterina Pesci's play, Cato reveals that Dante's spiteful treatment of many popes, especially Boniface VIII, as mentioned earlier, destined him to a very long time in purgatory, from which he emerged only recently by the direct intervention of the Virgin Mary, to whom he was devoted. In fact, the play ends with Cato revealing that Dante, from heaven, is now smiling down upon this new interpretation of his work, and Pope Boniface VIII is happy as well.

In her comedy *Davanti a San Pietro* [In front of St. Peter], which stages several souls who arrive to the gates of heaven to be judged by St. Peter, Gina Saffirio (1909–1994)<sup>36</sup> treats the reckoning of sin in a much lighter way. Published in 1962, this play also contains male characters, who may or may not have been acted by young women anyway. However, the presence of both men and women among the recently departed souls also allows us to see what kind of sins were typically attributed to each gender.

The setting is simple: a desk with an enormous book and a chair; the audience is not allowed to see the delights of heaven. St Peter, distinguished as so often in the Christian tradition by a large set of keys,<sup>37</sup> welcomes the recently arrived souls, checks his book, and decides their destiny. Spoiler alert: all the souls will go to purgatory—but for what sins? The first is a 14-year old girl—the very representative of the typical spectator. Apparently, young Marisa has devoted more time to outings than homework, has been distracted at mass, has sometimes mistreated her younger siblings, and has not always respected her mother. Another young woman, on the other hand, is guilty of far worse sins, as she was hoping to smuggle into heaven several copies of the glossy magazines *Bolero Film* and *Grand Hotel*—the most popular *fotoromanzi* of the times. In addition to international and local film star gossip, these "photonovels" or "photomagazines", a genre created in Italy in the post-World War II era, consisted of love stories represented by photos, with lines of dialogue as in comic strips written in

<sup>36</sup> Gina Saffirio was a primary school teacher in a village of the Piedmont region who published her educational plays in the Salesian theatre magazine for girls.

<sup>37</sup> Mt 16: 19.

speech balloons. These weekly publications, aimed almost exclusively at a female audience, became wildly popular in the post-war years among the lower socioeconomic classes, as they "filled a void left by both the high culture of literature and the mass culture of the cinema" (Garbin 2007, p. 769). Thirdly, a widow, who expects to be accepted into heaven because of the many charities to which she contributed, is accused by St Peter of doing charity work only "to be seen" or "to show off her clothes" (Saffirio 1962, p. 56); she too is in need of purification.

Purgatory is also the destination for two young men who have kept bad company, attended wild parties and watched excluded films; a drunkard who was only saved by a final confession arranged by his wife; and finally, to St. Peter's great surprise, even a shopkeeper whose accounting was not always honest. Bearing in mind that spectators in the Salesian plays would include not only other members of the school or oratory (hence the two young women's souls, guilty of superficial readings and disobedient attitude), but also the parents (hence the drunk and the dishonest shopkeeper), benefactors (hence the widow) and sometimes young men of the community who may have been interested in the young women on stage and in the audience (hence the movie-going couple of friends), one can see that the educational message of this play extended to the entire Salesian community.

Both *Interpretiamo Dante* and *Davanti a S. Pietro* are set on the threshold of purgatory or heaven. Both are plays in which souls are judged and sent on their way, either to hell or to purgatory; and both give the audience a moral compass on which behaviors to avoid. One final play, on the other hand, gives us a glimpse into heaven itself, a glimpse of what heaven might look like and the sort of people who get there, thus providing the audience with the best of role models to follow.

If in Gina Saffirio's *Davanti a S. Pietro* the protagonist St Peter had complained of the time it took to judge each arriving soul, the two doorkeeper angels who are acting as St Peter's substitutes in *Gran festa in Paradiso* [A grand celebration in Heaven] (Fornara 1965) by sister Flora Fornara (1902–1971)<sup>38</sup> complain of the enormous amount of people admitted into heaven since Don Bosco's arrival: "teenagers, priests, nuns, girls and boys, men and women with their badge of 'supporter', as well as young women, young men, adults, seniors, mothers, countless grandmothers, and all those with an 'alumnus' or 'alumna' badge" (p. 109), in addition to other individuals with no badge whatsoever who need only say 'Salesian benefactor' to simply waltz in. The other problem with this Salesian community in heaven is that they are awfully noisy: they cheer, laugh, sing and shout just like they did on earth, perhaps bothering that corner of heaven which belongs to the Trappist and Carthusian monks. Such a depiction of a Salesian heaven brings to mind the Simpsons episode "The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star" (season 16, episode 21) in which Marge imagines Protestant heaven as an aseptic, snobbish place of limited entry, as opposed to the several branches of Catholic heaven, where Hispanics dance, Irish drink and fight, and Italians sit around a table, eat, drink and kiss. In other words, according to Salesian educational theatre, what is needed to enter heaven? Basically, as long as you are part of the Salesian community, you will be just fine. Such an inclusive vision of heaven may well have been reassuring for the play's audience, made up most probably of students, families, alumni and benefactors, and would have confirmed the sense of belonging to a special group, already predestined to a joyous afterlife thanks to the special place that Don Bosco and St Maria Mazzarello have acquired in heaven for themselves and their community.

#### **7. Conclusions: Repent. Go and Sin No More**

A few conclusions can be drawn from these examples of 16th and 17th century Jesuit and 20th century Salesian theatrical representations of heaven and hell.

First, of course, there was the educational goal: although the Jesuit theatricality would have been much more elaborate than the home-spun Salesian sets and costumes, the basic idea was the same. Look at the beautiful, winged, triumphant angels; consider the ugly, horned, screaming demons; listen

<sup>38</sup> For a short biography of sister Fornara, see Cavallaro (2017, p. 225).

to the life experiences of those who will be whisked upwards by angels into heaven, and ponder the inglorious tales of those who will be dragged down by demons into eternal suffering. Then choose. Which role model will you follow? The time to make that choice is now.

Both congregations, in fact, insist that conversion happen now. Now you can still recognize the error of your ways; now you can still change. There will come a time, however, as Jesuit priest Stefano Tuccio staged in *Christus Iudex*, or as Salesian sister Caterina Pesci demonstrated in *Interpretiamo Dante*, when repentance will no longer be possible. Wait no longer to make that confession, pray that rosary, pay attention in church or cease coveting riches and glory. Repent now.<sup>39</sup>

The sins to avoid, on the other hand, varied somewhat. The 16th and 17th century Jesuit school students were educated toward lives of civic involvement or religious commitment. Thus, Tuccio chose famous examples of influential men condemned to hell because of their thirst for power, riches or self-indulgence. And Jesuit priest Vincenzo Guiniggi showed that not only idolatry, atheism and heresy, but also sometimes even nationalism or a forced sense of civic duty may be inspired by the devil, hence stressing once again the Jesuits' model of life devoted not to the greater glory of individuals, kings or nations, but rather to the one and only God.

The young women who received an education in the Salesian schools and oratories in the 1950s, on the other hand, were mostly destined to their mission of wives and mothers, perhaps educators of the younger generations. Purity and faith were essential to those roles. Consequently, the Salesian sisters' educational plays stress the importance of avoiding sensual temptations that may be found in the darkness of a movie theatre, in the physical promiscuity favored in dance halls, in the romantic reveries portrayed on the pages of *fotoromanzi*.

Despite the variance of the sins, however, the educational plays of both congregations helped their audiences to identify as works of the devil those temptations to which an educated young man in the 17th century and a lower-class young woman in the mid-20th century could be subject. And for both there was an urgency in their message: Repent. Now. And avoid the near occasion of sin.

There are other common characteristics which translate into other common goals as well: by placing their enemies in hell, both the Jesuits and Salesian added a polemic, propagandistic layer to their educational plays, showing the eternal punishment that awaits those who in the counter-reformation era followed Martin Luther, or in 1950s Italy aligned themselves with the godless communists. As for themselves, both the Jesuits and the Salesians theatrically show their founders Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, Don Bosco and Maria Mazzarello as part of the celestial realm, and thus able to support the members of their community in their quest for heaven. In other words, the scenes set in heaven create not only angelic visions, but also promote the congregations themselves—they now have their own saints in paradise—as well as a sense of belonging for the spectators, who find themselves well represented among the characters onstage.

Of course, the tradition of setting educational plays in the afterlife is not exclusive to Catholic Italy and did not die in the 1950s. In fact, that tradition continues to be very strong even today among evangelical groups who tour local churches to affect conversions among their spectators with their visions of heaven and hell. The drama *Heaven's Gates, Hell's Flames*, for example, created by Reality Outreach Ministries, according to their website, "is an evangelistic outreach tool that has been used to save hundreds of thousands of lives over the last 40 years, [performed by] 26 teams in over 20 countries".<sup>40</sup> The purpose of this 21st century American performance showing heaven and hell—like those of the 17th century or 1950s Italy—remains the same: to bring about conversions while involving the entire community. In other words, the message of these plays set in the afterlife and sponsored by religious groups—be they Jesuits, Salesians or evangelicals, from the 17th, 20th or 21st centuries—remains a part of a very traditional Judeo-Christian call: repent. Go and sin no more.

<sup>39</sup> This is also the most basic message of the Deuteronomic Historian (Dt 30: 15–20).

<sup>40</sup> https://realityoutreach.org/.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.

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© 2019 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
