Anna's personal journey into the maze has to do with her belief that her anger at lost love incited her miscarriage. Within her own body she "feels" the curse like the twisting of thorns which keeps her in constant pain and makes it impossible for her to create the masks she loves. She believes, as do all pilgrims on entering the maze, that walking through its twists and turns will unravel the curse and leave it behind her. But the maze is not an exercise in forgetting and losing, it is about confrontation with the self -- a terrifying prospect. She has brought the masks with her and they call out to her from the depths of the bag. But even they tremble at what the maze might do to their beloved Anna.
"Oh, my beauties, where did I take the wrong turn?" Anna asked. She was lying on her back staring up at the flutter of silvery leaves. The air was redolent with the scent of green grass and spicy olive wood. The sun was warm on her face, easing the panic she had felt at discovering herself quite alone in the maze.
"Leaving Venice," said a miffed Pantelone from inside the bag.
"Not studying the classics!" Il Dottore objected.
"Not bringing enough to eat," complained Arlecchino.
"Not bringing any wine.'" grumbled the satyr.
"Loving the devil who cursed us," said the nymph, rustling her leaves.
"Not having a dowry for Mirabella," piped the ingenue.
"Letting the drunkard Spaniard take up space in the bag," groused Pulcinella. "Prickless coward! When I get out of here, I'll give you a hundred whacks where it hurts the most!"
"Wart-faced whelp of a worn-out whore, what do you know of courage!" demanded II Capitano. "Anna should have chopped you up for the moths to eat."
Anna rolled her eyes and pinched her fingers together. "Basta! I didn't ask for your opinions about my life. I only asked where I made the wrong turn in the maze and lost Mirabella and the others?"
The masks were silent a moment before they all started to chatter at once.
"At the cedars, you should have—"
"By the fountain of naked nymphs—"
"The bridge, stupid—"
"What about those dead trees—"
"It's clear that the rountunding ambrage, reticulating the reversals—"
Anna put her head in her hands. "At least now I don't feel so badly. Clearly, I'm not the only one to be hopelessly lost."
"Why are we here at all?" asked Pantelone.
Anna lifted her face to the olive trees. "Because I have been cursed by an evil man, of course."
"Of course..." Read More >>>
Research Notes, Johnstone, Impro : Masks and Trance I, Trance States in Masks II, Rudlin Commedia Masks III
Excerpts from The Innamorati: Anna and the Masks , Anna Surrenders, Anna's Return
Photo credit: Didaskalia: Journal for Ancient Theater
Midori Snyder is the author of nine books for children and adults, published in English, French, Dutch, and Italian. She won the Mythopoeic Award for The Innamorati, a novel inspired by early Roman myth and the Italian "Commedia dell'Arte" tradition....
