It always surprises me how little we know about the history of
our own profession. I did not know much myself until after I stopped producing
shows a few years ago and finally found time to look at some history. Knowing
what I do now, I would have to say that we are only barely beginning to scratch
the surface of creativity, especially when it comes to comparing ourselves with
ancient event producers and what minimal "raw materials" they had to
work with.
The emperor Domitian
I'm going to begin these visits to the past with an example of a
Roman theme dinner that was created by the notoriously paranoid and
cruel emperor Domitian in or around 88 or 89 CE, and to which he invited
leading senators and other VIPs to commemorate Romans lost in the Dacian War.
The account by the Roman writer Cassius Dio provides a good description:
"On another occasion he entertained the foremost men among
the senators and knights in the following fashion. He prepared a room that was
pitch black on every side, ceiling, walls and floor, and had made ready bare
couches of the same colour resting on the uncovered floor; then he invited in
his guests alone at night without their attendants. And first he set beside
each of them a slab shaped like a gravestone, bearing the guest's name and also
a small lamp, such as hang in tombs. Next comely naked boys, likewise painted
black, entered like phantoms, and after encircling the guests in an
awe-inspiring dance took up their stations at their feet. After this all the
things that are commonly offered at the sacrifices to departed spirits were
likewise set before the guests, all of them black and in dishes of a similar
colour. Consequently, every single one of the guests feared and trembled and
was kept in constant expectation of having his throat cut the next moment, the
more so as on the part of everybody but Domitian there was dead silence, as if
they were already in the realms of the dead, and the emperor himself conversed
only upon topics relating to death and slaughter. Finally he dismissed them;
but he had first removed their slaves, who had stood in the vestibule, and now
gave his guests in charge of other slaves, whom they did not know, to be
conveyed either in carriages or litters, and by this procedure he filled them
with far greater fear. And scarcely had each guest reached his home and was
beginning to get his breath again, as one might say, when word was brought him
that a messenger from the Augustus (Domitian) had come. While they were
accordingly expecting to perish this time in any case, one person brought in
the slab, which was of silver, and then others in turn brought in various
articles, including the dishes that had been set before them at the dinner,
which were constructed of very costly material; and last of all came that
particular boy who had been each guest's familiar spirit, now washed and
adorned. Thus, after having passed the entire night in terror, they received
the gifts."
Talk
about an experiential event! We love to trigger emotions in modern events, but
seldom consider fear as one that our guests would appreciate. I wonder if any
of us would be prepared to go as far as Domitian did.
