Paul Monaghan

The Plautine persona

In this paper I attempt to draw a sketch of the Plautine theatrical persona (actor and mask) in performance. To create this sketch, I am indebted to David Wiles’ The Masks of Menander, and have drawn also on four of my own productions of Plautine comedies using masks, costumes, props and staging based on evidence for Roman theatrical practice: Menaechmi, Casina, and Mostellaria were performed in Latin, and Miles Gloriosus in English. I directed all but Menaechmi (which was directed, oddly enough, by a man named Pollux)1 and performed in all four.