Stage: The Miracle at Naples
In David Grimm's recreation of a sixteenth-century commedia dell’arte, an itinerant theatrical troupe wreaks havoc on Naples for two days during the feast of its patron saint, San Gennaro.
Boston Center for the Arts
(617) 266-0800
**
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“Sixteenth-century commedia dell’arte certainly didn’t shy away from crudity,” said Sandy MacDonald in Theatermania.com. But playwright David Grimm’s recreation of the form “pushes the envelope” from the opening line— “To hell with my virginity”—uttered by the sheltered ingénue Flaminia. Her duenna soon provides instructions on how to lose said virginity, which Flaminia follows with not one but two traveling actors, the rapscallion Tristano and the blockheaded Matteo. But they turn out to be more interested in each other than in any ménage à trois. Grimm peppers scenes such as these with a “contemporary sensibility” and more curse words than a rap song, but the characters are too loosely drawn, and the humor insufficient, to pull The Miracle at Naples out of the gutter.
Grimm is true to the essence of commedia dell’arte in the sense that “no double-entendre goes unpushed, no comic flourish unembellished,” said Louise Kennedy in The Boston Globe. The play concerns an itinerant theatrical troupe that wreaks havoc on Naples for two days during the feast of its patron saint, San Gennaro. But the playwright seems more interested in making a point about hidebound morality than he is in crafting a comedy. There’s a bit of preachiness inherent in many of Naples’ scenes, a sort of “Look how funny this all is—and think how silly the world is not to be this free-spirited.” The carefree spirit provides for plenty of fleeting entertainment, but it’s a bit “odd to sit through two hours of profanity-larded, crotch-grabbing, bosom-heaving comedy and come away feeling as if you’ve been read a sermon.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'What is this Hungarian model they so admire?'
Instant Opinion 'Opinion, comment and editorials of the day'
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - April 1, 2025
Cartoons Tuesday's cartoons - trade wars, tax deadlines, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The ETA: how new UK travel rules may affect you
The Explainer Full roll-out of Britain's new travel scheme is designed to be easy, but some have already faced problems
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published