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The Theatre of Romeo Castellucci and Socìetas

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 The THEATRE of

ROMEO CASTELLUCCI

and

SOCÌETAS RAFFAELLO SANZIO

From Icon to Iconoclasm, From Word to Image, From Symbol to Allegory

DOROTA SEMENOWICZ
The Theatre of Romeo Castellucci and Socìetas
Raffaello Sanzio
 Dorota Semenowicz

The Theatre of
Romeo Castellucci
and Socìetas Raffaello
Sanzio
From Icon to Iconoclasm, From Word to Image,
From Symbol to Allegory
Dorota Semenowicz
Teatr Narodowy
Warsaw, Poland

Translated by Patrycja Cichoń-Zielińska

Title of the original edition: To nie jest obraz. Romeo Castellucci i Societas
Raffaello Sanzio by Dorota Semenowicz published by Malta Fundacja,
Korporacja Ha! Art, 2013

ISBN 978-1-137-56965-3    ISBN 978-1-137-56390-3 (eBook)

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56390-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016947969

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-
lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Cover image: Sul concetto del volto nel Figlio di Dio, 2010 © Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Nature America Inc.
The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A.
 Contents

1 Introduction   1

2 The Khmer Theatre  13

Against Tradition  13
Iconoclasm  27
Spectator in the Image  36

3 An Open Image  51

Genesi: From the Museum of Sleep   51
Purgatorio  66
Sul concetto di volto nel Figlio di Dio   77

4 From Mysteries to Tragedy  99

Tragedy and the Mythical Period  99
Word in the Image 117
Tragedy Today 130

5 Conversations 155
‘Theatre Is a Counterfeit Coin’ 155
Conversation with Romeo Castellucci 155
The Need to Watch 164
Conversation with Claudia Castellucci 164

v
vi Contents

Everything Becomes Sound 169

Conversation with Chiara Guidi 169
Working for Socìetas Is Not Easy 172
Conversation with Gilda Biasini 172
Why I Need an Elephant 177
Conversation with Romeo Castellucci 177
The Cry of Lucifer 184
Conversation with Romeo Castellucci About
Doctor Faustus  184

6 Epilogue 195
Eurydice from the Clinic in Vlezenbeek 195

Theatrography 205
Productions Made by Romeo Castellucci with Socìetas
Raffaello Sanzio 205
Productions Made by Romeo Castellucci in Other Contexts 218

Bibliography 223
Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio223
Others225

Index 231
 List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Santa Sofia. Teatro Khmer, 1986 (© by Socìetas Raffaello

Sanzio. In photo: Chiara Guidi as Pol Pot,
Claudia Castellucci as Leo III) 20
Fig. 2.2 Santa Sofia. Teatro Khmer, 1986 (© by Socìetas Raffaello
Sanzio. In photo: Romeo Castellucci as a monk) 31
Fig. 3.1 Genesi: From the Museum of Sleep, 1999 (© by Socìetas
Raffaello Sanzio. Photo: Luca Del Pia. In photo: children
in Act II, Auschwitz)53
Fig. 3.2 Purgatorio, 2008 (© by Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio. Photo: Luca
Del Pia. In photo: Sergio Scarlatella as the Third Star,
Pier Paolo Zimmermann as the Second Star) 72
Fig. 3.3 Purgatorio, 2008 (© by Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio. Photo: Luca
Del Pia. In photo: Pier Paolo Zimmermann as the Second Star) 72
Fig. 3.4 Sul concetto del volto nel Figlio di Dio, 2010 (© by Socìetas
Raffaello Sanzio. In photo: Sergio Scarlatella as Son) 80
Fig. 4.1 Orestea (una commedia organica?), 1995 (© by Socìetas
Raffaello Sanzio. In photo: Franco Pistoni as Pylades,
Fiorella Tommasini as Clytemnestra, Silvano Voltolina
as Orestes in Act II, Agamemnon)102
Fig. 4.2 Giulio Cesare, 1997 (© by Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio. In
photo: Elena Bagaloni as Brutus, Cristiana Bertini as Cassius) 119
Fig. 4.3 Amleto. La veemente esteriorità della morte di un
mollusco, 1992 (© by Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio.
In photo: Paolo Tonti as Hamlet) 126
Fig. 4.4 Tragedia Endogonidia, BR.#04 (Brussels, 2003) (© by
Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio. Photo: Luca Del Pia. In the photo:
mechanical head and seven-month-old baby) 137

vii
viii List of Figures

Fig. 5.1 Genesi: From the museum of sleep, 1999 (© by Socìetas

Raffaello Sanzio. Photo: Luca Del Pia. In photo:
Renzo Mion as Cain in Act III, Abel and Cain)158
Fig. 5.2 The Four Seasons Restaurant, 2013 (© by Malta Fundacja.
Photo: Maciej Zakrzewski. In the foreground: Silvia Costa) 169
Fig. 5.3 Doctor Faustus, 2015 (© by Malta Fundacja. Photo:
Maciej Zakrzewski) 186
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Romeo Castellucci, one of the world’s most esteemed theatre directors,

honoured with prestigious awards including the Golden Lion in Venice
for lifetime achievement, claims that ‘theatre just happened to him’.1 He
had been predominantly interested in the world of visual arts, an interest
that initially gave rise to performance-art shows, created first in second-
ary school and then during university, which later turned into theatre. In
1981, with his sister Claudia Castellucci, wife-to-be, Chiara Guidi, and her
brother Paolo, the director formed Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio2—an associa-
tion fusing theatre, performance art and visual arts, which was to explore
the potential of theatrical expression outside of narration. The company’s
name refers to the Renaissance painter Raphael and points to the art-­
related roots of its founders: Castellucci graduated in painting and stage
design from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, his sister in painting
and philosophy, and his wife in literature with elements of art history.
Castellucci was responsible for the initial shape of Socìetas performances,
their direction, stage design and costumes, Chiara Guidi for voice work,
and Claudia Castellucci for stage movement and the productions’ intellec-
tual context—she wrote scripts for the company’s first performances, the-
oretical texts, took part in conferences and edited publications printed by
the theatre. Since 2006, Romeo, Chiara and Claudia have been creating
independent productions within Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio. Before then,
productions initiated since the late 1980s by Castellucci were prepared by
the company together, though with clearly defined responsibilities. One

© The Author(s) 2016 1

D. Semenowicz, The Theatre of Romeo Castellucci and Socìetas
Raffaello Sanzio, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56390-3_1
2 D. SEMENOWICZ

can say that Castellucci had the role of artistic director for the projects.
The company functioned as a family institution and, despite changes in
work organisation in 2006, it still does, which is a rarity in the European
theatre world. The children of Romeo and Chiara have taken part in
Socìetas p­ erformances. In several performances, the Castellucci siblings’
mother has appeared. Their decade-older sister also works for Socìetas.
Despite the fact that, today, Claudia, Chiara and Romeo create indepen-
dent projects, their work continues to share elements of the vision they
originally forged in the 1980s, of theatre as a place to experience infancy,
where audiences can be transported into a different world unrelated to
day-to-day reality and, thanks to this, offering an opportunity to observe
the human being from a distance. According to Socìetas, theatre is the
field of art which has the greatest potential to suspend the laws governing
everyday life, and institute a new reality.
In Socìetas productions directed by Castellucci, the primary instrument
of constructing this new world is an image. Performances have a classical
composition created within the frame of the stage watched by an audience
member sitting opposite it—this spatial setting resembles the position of
a viewer in front of a painting. Frequent points of reference for the world
thus created are paintings, such as Pablo Picasso’s Guernica and works
by Francis Bacon in Oresteia (1995), Mark Rothko’s works in The Four
Seasons Restaurant (2012), and Masaccio’s fresco The Expulsion from the
Garden of Eden, with his Eve becoming an inspiration for the figure of Eve
in Genesi: From the Museum of Sleep (1999). The space, the play of colours
and forms, as well as actor scenes, are built in a plastic manner, and actors
communicate with the audience at the level of visual meaning. However,
for Castellucci, image is not only the instrument of building the stage
language, but also the subject of a philosophical reflection, both aesthetic
and ethical. The point is not to determine what an image is (in different
periods of his work, the director has called it a form, then a symbol or an
idea), but to define its roles. That was the nature of the reference Socìetas
made to the notion of iconoclasm (Greek eikōn, image, and klao, break,
which literally means ‘breaking an image’), an early Christian movement
opposing the cult of icons and religious figures.
Why did theatre with image as its constitutive instrument refer to a move-
ment characterised by the rejection of images? This is the question which
lies at the heart of this book. The first edition was published in Poland in
2013 as To nie jest obraz. Romeo Castellucci i Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio [This
Is Not an Image: The Theatre of Romeo Castellucci and Socìetas Raffaello
Visit https://textbookfull.com
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 INTRODUCTION 3

Sanzio] by the Malta Foundation and the publisher Ha!Art.3 It was

designed as a critical reconstruction of the Italian director’s theatre and the
theoretical approaches accompanying it, hence as a meta-analysis aiming
to present the theatrical project that has developed over the past 30 years,
with its ethical and aesthetic framework designated by reflection on the
image. The book is based on contexts suggested by Castellucci (including
the notions of iconoclasm, the pre-tragic and infancy), which are analysed
in consecutive chapters. An effort is made to confront the creator’s dis-
course with the philosophical and aesthetic discourses on which his proj-
ect draws: the perspectives of Pavel Florensky, Giorgio Agamben, Jakob
Bachofen, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Franz Rosenzweig and Hans Blumenberg.
It explores where these discourses meet and where they diverge from one
another.
It is thus possible to distinguish the crucial categories in Romeo
Castellucci’s theatre, to look at them with hindsight, to show how particu-
lar concepts functioned in different periods of the director’s oeuvre, how
they evolved, mutated, and in which forms they recurred, testifying to the
uniformity and consistency of his project. These categories find a different
way of expression in each of Castellucci’s creative periods, but the field of
interest has not changed. This theatre is a consistently developed project
that continually surpasses itself.
***
Four periods can be distinguished in Castellucci’s oeuvre. The first is
designated by iconoclastic performances from the early 1980s charac-
terised by a rebellion against theatre subjugated to literature and under-
stood as a representation of reality, and by an attempt to redefine the
role of art. At that time, Claudia Castellucci was the author of scripts for
Socìetas’s productions. They differed significantly from other dramatic
works, functioning as an organic part of the performance, and subordi-
nated to the materiality of the stage. The Socìetas approach has its roots
in the tradition of the Italian avant-garde, not only of the 1960s but
also of the 1970s and 1980s, or the so-called post-avant-garde to which
the works of the company from Cesena are considered to belong. That
had been a period of great liveliness for Italian theatre—a time of formal
experiments, touching upon subjects until then considered non-theat-
rical, and building relationships between different fields of art. Socìetas
was part of this movement, grew out of it, drew inspiration from it and
defined itself against it.
4 D. SEMENOWICZ

The first wave of the avant-garde, including Mario Ricci, Carmelo

Bene, Carlo Quartucci and Leo de Berardinis, touched upon the subject
of the autonomy of theatre, looking for that which makes it different from
other fields of art. This question, posed already at the beginning of the
twentieth century and developed by the avant-garde of the 1920s and
1930s, recurred at this time with redoubled intensity. What differentiated
it then was interdisciplinarity. The avant-garde of the 1960s drew from
film, conceptual art, contemporary dance, happening and new trends in
music in the vein of John Cage. Performances were shown in galleries, art
houses, museums, and at exhibitions including the Biennale in Venice and
Documenta in Kassel. Its most significant creators, Carmelo Bene and
Carlo Quartucci, were educated at Accademia Silvio D’Amico and Stabile
di Genova respectively, but these were only episodes in their artistic
biographies, needed only to affirm them in their choice of which artistic
path to follow—antagonistic towards conventional theatre. This choice
had a political character. In the 1960s, Italy experienced rapid economic
growth. Traditional, literature-based theatre symbolised the bourgeois
ideology preaching the myth of economic advancement that intellectu-
als and artists linked with Italy’s fascist past. The avant-garde began to
deconstruct this myth connected with the bourgeois class, its hierarchy
of values and lifestyle. Demythologisation consisted of the destruction
of theatrical conventions, confronting the text with the stage through
aesthetics rather than a theme or meanings contained in the text of the
performance.
This shift in emphasis from the text to that which is happening onstage
was precisely the second feature of the Italian avant-garde. The artists
either rejected the text completely or embedded it in a composition in
which it was but one of many elements. The works of Bene, one of the
best-known and most valued Italian directors of that period, creator of
controversial adaptations of classic texts including Pinocchio, Hamlet,
Romeo and Juliet and Othello, were of particular importance for the out-
put of Castellucci. Bene has underscored that, once a performance has
started, ‘everything has already happened’ and all we are left with are ‘the
rests, oral fragments of a scenic palimpsest or a past perfect poetic’.4 The
space and narration of a performance in Bene’s theatre were determined
by manipulation of the word: screams, whispers, excessive movement close
to parody and profanation. The work on voice made it possible to break
the language of a classic text, depriving it of its initial meaning. In this way,
the text of the play was created anew.
 INTRODUCTION 5

The breakdown of form and work on the physical aspect of theatrical

signs that is characteristic of Bene’s theatre is also typical of Socìetas works
from the 1980s and 1990s in which the word acquired plasticity and
became a mere sound. What mattered was the voice’s very rhythm, pulse,
vibration and volume, rather than sense contained in the words uttered.
A significant role in shaping the Socìetas approach was played by
Federico Tiezzi. A little older than the group members, Tiezzi had started
his work in 1972 in Florence by founding the company Il Carrozzone,
which in 1979 changed its name to Magazzini Criminali. His works are
already considered to belong to the post-avant-garde distinguished by
Giuseppe Bartolucci,5 the legendary Italian theatre critic, from the avant-­
garde of the 1960s.
The post-avant-garde definitely sped up and developed the practice the
avant-garde had opened up to earlier, based on interdisciplinarity and the
critique of bourgeois culture.6 Texts of Jacques Derrida, Jean-François
Lyotard and Michel Foucault played an important role in its formation.
These described the breakdown of the modern paradigm of the world as
a whole, underscoring the lack of continuity and heterogeneity in con-
temporary times and for the individual themself. Along with Tiezzi’s
early companies, the 1970s also saw the formation of other companies of
significance to Italian theatre: in 1976, in Rome, Gaia Scienza (Barberio
Corsetti, Marco Solari and Alessandra Vanzi) began its activities; in 1977,
in Naples, both Falso Movimento (directed by Mario Martone) and Teatro
dei Mutamenti (Antonio Neiwiller and Renato Carpentieri) were formed;
in 1978, Teatro Studio di Caserta (with Toni Servillo); and in 1979 the
Milan-based Teatro Out Off (headed by Antonio Syxty). Then, in 1980,
Il Teatro della Valdoca was established and a year later Socìetas Raffaello
Sanzio, both in Cesena. .
Tiezzi, similarly to Carmelo Bene, focused on breaking the conven-
tional theatrical signs. In contrast to the surplus that characterised the
theatre of the director of Pinocchio, however, the creator of Magazzini
Criminali reduced theatre to the minimum of expression. Tiezzi’s pro-
ductions were characterised by the reduction of theatrical means: ‘We
considered academic recitation tantamount to the chatter stigmatized by
Pasolini,’ he stated. ‘But the point was also to gain some distance to the
theatre of screaming, so fashionable at that time, which was spreading in
the performances under the trademark of the Living Theatre. Originally,
our theatre was the theatre of silence.’7 His theatre was defined by ref-
erences to limits (of representation, body, subjectivity) and an opening
6 D. SEMENOWICZ

towards the image. In such productions as Presagi del vampiro (1977),

Vedute di Porto Said and Studi per ambiente (both 1978), and Punto di
rottura (1979), the conceptual work on theatrical language meets the lan-
guage of visual arts, and that which is real, an element disturbing theatrical
representation, forces its way into a theatrical world that has been reduced
to its minimum.
The third point of reference for the Castelluccis was Arte Povera, which
emphasised the austerity of ‘poor’ material—rags, newspapers, metal,
stone. Their company’s first performances, such as Popolo zuppo [Soaked
People] (1982), referred to the activities of Jannis Kounellis and Joseph
Beuys. In I fuoriclasse della bontà [The Master of Goodness] (1983), there
are references not only to Arte Povera but also to Dadaism. However, as
Romeo Castellucci notes, these references were not expressed directly:

There are references but never direct quotations. You cannot say: this is
Zorio, this is Kounellis, this is Beuys. There is a sensitive connection, a kin-
ship, but nothing more. I find that during a performance one should be able
to forget intellectual and cultural references. […] The fundamental thing in
theatre is the emotive weave, the sensitivity shock.8

Also today, intellectual references—philosophical, ethical, theological,

cultural and iconographic—are often covert in Socìetas performances. The
point is, above all, to involve the audience in the emotional and physical
implications of an image, story and idea.
It was precisely their inspiration by Arte Povera and the works of Bene
and Tiezzi, which introduced reflection on the physical reality of a perfor-
mance,9 that led Socìetas, in the performance Santa Sofia. Teatro Khmer
(1986), to formulate the concept of a theatre in an iconoclastic gesture
destroying those images which are familiar, solid, well known, a theatre
focused on breaking sense, distancing itself from theatre based on the
text, on the word understood as the means of conveying sense. That per-
formance was a stage adaptation of the company’s theatrical philosophy at
that time, a stage manifesto of sorts that established a new theatrical ritual.
The second period in the oeuvre of Socìetas, the so-called pre-­
tragic period, is designated by productions based on myths of ancient
Mesopotamia. Myth indicates a world before word-based Greek tragedy
which, as the artists thought at that time, was characterised by intellectual
distance; a world in which the symbol is the only means of conveying
sense, a direct link with that which goes beyond us, which is indepen-
 INTRODUCTION 7

dent from us. According to Socìetas, this is the time of mystery. Thus the
pre-tragic theatre, in their concept, was an intimate theatre, focused on
the audience member’s individual experience and impacting him or her
through the materiality of the bodies onstage.
The pre-tragic would also determine the work of Socìetas on dramatic
texts in the 1990s. The group believed that the core of tragedy can only
be reached by a reference to ‘pre-tragic thinking’—based on the body and
matter. Pre-tragic thinking would also be the foundation of Socìetas’s work
on such productions as Orestea (una comedia organica?) [The Oresteia (an
organic comedy?)], Giulio Cesare [Julius Caesar] (1997), and Genesi: From
the Museum of Sleep—a show based on the Book of Genesis yet, in the
director’s concept, following the principles of Greek tragedy. This period
also saw a transition from interest in mystery to fascination with ancient
Rome. Both references created the framework for Castellucci’s theatre.
The director made use of the full wealth of the theatre medium, want-
ing to surprise and inspire the audience. He created a spectacular theatre,
characterised by an abundance of staging effects and devices—a theatre of
rhetoric. ‘I believe that rhetoric is a strict mother who teaches me the art
of theatre,’10 he has stated; ‘Its purpose is to catch you. […] It is a serious
game (as is every game a child plays).’11 Castellucci uses the potential of
the stage to the maximum, but reveals the fiction of theatre by accentuat-
ing the materiality of his theatrical means and the physicality of bodies
onstage.
The work on tragedy in the 1990s brought Socìetas in 2002 to under-
take the cycle Tragedia Endogonidia (2002–4), a reflection on the ‘trag-
edy of the future’ and, at the same time, another manifestation of the
project aiming to construct a new language and theatrical world (which
had begun with Santa Sofia. Teatro Khmer). The 11 performances that
comprised the cycle show the fascination with the past characteristic of
Castellucci12 and, in parallel, an inclination towards the future, towards
experiment, which has its roots in avant-garde experience. It is the last
project the founders of Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio completed together.
Another period in Castellucci’s work seems to be outlined by the
productions Purgatorio [Purgatory] (2008), part of the triptych Divine
Comedy, based on the Dante poem, and Sul concetto del volto nel Figlio
di Dio [On the Concept of the Face, Regarding the Son of God], created
independently by Chiara Guidi and Claudia Castellucci. In both produc-
tions, Castellucci shifts audience emotions related to a social or religious
image into a different context, disposing of their original meaning but
8 D. SEMENOWICZ

keeping their authenticity. A similar strategy was applied in Santa Sofia

and in Genesi. However, in Purgatorio and Sul concetto di volto nel Figlio
di Dio this move is accompanied by a different aesthetic—in a realistic
vein, built in reference to bourgeois theatre. Genesi, on the other hand,
had followed the aesthetic of the director’s productions from the 1990s.
Both Purgatorio and Sul concetto di volto nel Figlio di Dio, as with Genesi,
consider the relationship between the creator and his creation, God and
his work, the father and the son.
***
The chapters of the present book do not correspond to the chronology
of Romeo Castellucci’s works. The purpose of the publication is to present
the theatrical project of Socìetas, but also to attempt to interpret it, analys-
ing successive forms of different philosophical concepts which Castellucci
converts into images. The book, therefore, although divided into five
chapters arranged non-chronologically, is not only a story of sorts. Its
core (The Khmer Theatre, An open Image, From Mysteries to Tragedy) is
a story which has a beginning, middle and end.
The chapter entitled The Khmer Theatre refers to two productions
which were stage adaptations of the company’s theatrical philosophy:
Kaputt Necropolis (1984) and Santa Sofia. Teatro Khmer. Analysing
them makes it possible to introduce basic notions defining the theatre of
Castellucci, placing the director’s thought between the theology of image
and montage as conceived by Sergei Eisenstein and Aby Warburg, showing
that Castellucci is not interested in simple oppositions of iconoclasm and
icon, idea and matter, rationalism and irrationalism, word and image, past
and future, but in tensions which these juxtapositions bring about in the
viewer. Those early productions already show that Castellucci’s theatre is
based on the principle of asymmetry, an insurmountable conflict. The goal
of the image created by the director is not to erase or minimise, get rid
of or cross boundaries, but to accentuate them as strongly as possible by
means of montage, work on physical presence, the ‘visibility’ of the word.
In that chapter, the methodological tool is introduced which will
then be used to analyse Castellucci’s subsequent works: Georges Didi-­
Huberman’s theory of image (often called the psychoanalysis of image).
According to the French philosopher, the object, that is, the work of art,
cannot be separated from the subject looking at it. Castellucci likewise
claims that if an image poses a question, thus focusing the viewer’s atten-
tion, this question does not belong with the image, but with the viewer.
 INTRODUCTION 9

In Didi-Huberman’s analyses, he tries to reach the phantasm hidden

behind images, and for this reason the tools he proposes seem particularly
useful for analysing performances and works of art based on collective or
individual trauma. Castellucci’s productions analysed in the third chapter
are such performances. Thus, the present work fails to refer to other con-
texts linked with the philosophy of images, and Didi-Huberman remains
the main frame of reference outside the system of references mentioned
by Castellucci himself. The category of image is to be found in various
fields of the humanities, at the crossroads of many theoretical languages.
Reference to other contexts would have entangled me in deliberations on
problems related to the notion of image as such. The objective of the pres-
ent work was, rather, to analyse Romeo Castellucci’s theatre.
Selection criteria for the productions in the An Open Image chap-
ter were the artistic strategies characterising them. The analysis explores
what precisely the negotiations between image and viewer are about in
the director’s theatre. What do iconoclastic assumptions mean in practice?
What images does Castellucci destroy? The productions Genesi, Purgatorio
and Sul concetto di volto nel Figlio di Dio are organised around the images
of Auschwitz, rape and the image of Christ from Antonello da Messina’s
painting Salvatore Mundi, respectively. By making reference to individual
and collective phantasms, the productions embed the audience in the per-
formance in the same way a subject is embedded in the visual images of
his or her dreams. What is more, they do not provide answers but, on the
contrary, give rise to doubts, creating many truths and thus not creating a
single truth, which would have a stabilising power.
The chapter From Mysteries to Tragedy focuses on adaptations of dra-
matic texts: Aeschylus’s The Oresteia, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and the
project Tragedia Endogonidia. Tragedy allowed Socìetas to fully initiate an
anthropological argument through stage activities and the materiality of the
performance, becoming for Castellucci the fundamental structure of thinking
about theatre. In the fourth chapter, that which remained in the background
of the reflection in the previous chapters—the relationship between word
and image, the past, present and future, mystery and rhetoric—is described,
named and analysed. Such a structure makes it possible to show the evolu-
tion in the intellectual foundations of Castellucci’s theatre, the metamor-
phosis of some of the concepts and, simultaneously, their continuity.
The English-language version of this book has been updated and supple-
mented in comparison with the original publication in Polish. One addition
is a review that became here an epilogue analysing the director’s staging in
2014 of the Gluck opera Orfeo ed Euridice in two versions: as part of Wiener
10 D. SEMENOWICZ

Festwochen and at the Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels. The opera pro-

duction is characterised by a strategy similar to the theatre productions ana-
lysed in the third chapter. Thanks to this, it is also possible to take up the
subject of pathos, a frequently recurring category in Castellucci’s works.
In addition to interviews I conducted in 2013 with Romeo and Claudia
Castellucci and Chiara Guidi—the founders of Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio—
and with Gilda Biasini, the company’s producer since 1988, who describes
the organisation of the company’s work, the book’s English version also
includes two subsequent interviews. The first was commissioned by the
Polish theatre journal Didaskalia and concerns the presence of animals in
Castellucci’s productions. The second was published in 2015 in the mag-
azine of Malta Festival Poznań and concerns the director’s installation-­
concert Doctor Faustus, commissioned by the festival.
The present book also includes an updated list of productions made by
Castellucci through 2015 with Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio and in other con-
texts, and an extended bibliography. It inserts the references on Romeo
Castellucci’s theatre that were published after the publication of the Polish
version.
In conclusion, I would like once again to thank Grzegorz Niziołek, the
supervisor of my PhD dissertation, which is the basis for the present book,
as well as Katarzyna Tórz and Jakub Snochowski for their support and Joe
Kelleher for his help in preparing the English-language version of the book.

Notes
1. Romeo Castellucci, Romeo Castellucci o sobie, interview by Dorota
Semenowicz [online], http://2013.malta-festival.pl/pl/festival/
multimedia/romeo-castelluccio-sobiew-rozmowie-z-dorota-
semenowicz [accessed: 20 April 2013].
2. Initially, the company functioned under the name Società Raffaello
Sanzio. In 1990, it altered the word società (‘society’ in Italian) to
socìetas (‘community, association, political league, alliance’ in
Latin), which is used in the name to date. The Latin word accentu-
ates the character of a fellowship, an alliance entered into to achieve
particular objectives (commercial or political objectives, as well as
in order to commit a crime).
3. In 2013, Castellucci was curator of the programme ‘Oh Man, Oh
Machine’ at Malta Festival Poznań, the largest festival of perform-
ing arts in Poland.
 INTRODUCTION 11

4. Gabriella Giannachi, Nick Kaye, Staging the Post-Avant-Garde:

Italian Experimental Performance After 1970, Peter Lang AG,
Bern 2002, p. 20. The present description of the Italian avant-
garde is predominantly based on this book. On the Italian avant-
garde and post-avant-­ garde, see also: Valentina Valentini, New
Theater Made in Italy, Performance Research Books, to be pub-
lished in 2016.
5. Giuseppe Bartollucci (1923–96), journalist, curator, director of
theatre institutions, played the lead role in creating the avant-garde
identity for over 30 years. He supported new companies and stim-
ulated young artists to search. He was an involved critic, fighting
for the right to take risks in art, and the symbol of the rebellious,
belligerent spirit of the 1970s and 1980s in Italy.
6. The first showcase of the new experimental theatre was organised
by Giuseppe Bartollucci in 1981 in Rome in the frame of the festi-
val ‘Paesaggio Metropolitano’.
7. Sandro Lombardi, Gli anni felici, Garzanti, Milano 2004, p. 93.
8. Romeo Castellucci, as cited in: Gabriella Giannachi, Nick Kaye,
Staging the Post-Avant-Garde, op. cit., p. 138.
9. This is not an exhaustive set of the inspirations that influenced the
formation of Castellucci’s theatrical project, but it makes it possible
to place his theatre in the context of transformations in Italian the-
atre of the period. A list of artists who left a particularly strong mark
on Castellucci’s thought should include Robert Wilson (the break-
down of narration, montage) and Jerzy Grotowski (materiality, the
category of authenticity). As Castellucci says of Grotowski: ‘I
remember the impression his text Towards a Poor Theatre made on
me, and particularly, the photographs. These tensed, arched bodies,
as if they were being tortured, their eyeballs rolled […] There are
issues which I have in common with Grotowski. Some kind of radi-
calism, taking things terribly seriously. But in other aspects I am
very far from him. The issue of truth, salvation, therapy... I haven’t
seen his performances, but as you probably know, Grotowski lived
in Italy and at that time he turned to us, our group Socìetas Raffaello
Sanzio, to let him use our theatre for two “actions”, as he called
them. Of course we said yes. I saw these actions and I was deeply
impressed by the quality of their gesture.’ Romeo Castellucci, Teatr
to pole bitwy, interview with Dorota Semenowicz (recorded meet-
12 D. SEMENOWICZ

ing with audience), Dwutygodnik.com, 2014, no. 10, <www.dwu-

tygodnik.com/artykul/5483-teatr-to-pole-bitwy.html> See also:
Interview with Claudia Castellucci in the present book. In this con-
text it is important to notice the name of the movement Arte Povera
was taken from Grotowski’s text Towards a Poor Theatre.
10. Claudia and Romeo Castellucci, Les Pèlerins de la matière, Les
Solitaires Intempestifs, Besançon 2001, p. 82.
11. Ibid., p. 93.
12. Castellucci often speaks about ‘a specific interest [in] ancient arts,
ancient books, ancient buildings, ancient paintings and also ancient
sculptures’. Romeo Castellucci, as cited in: Gabriella Giannachi,
Nick Kaye, Staging the Post-Avant-Garde, op. cit., p. 138.
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 CHAPTER 2

The Khmer Theatre

AGAINST TRADITION

You shall not enter the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople having no experi-
ence of revolution. Walk away if you are used to theatre, there are no images
for you here. There is nothing that could be commented on from an aes-
thetic perspective. Look at the world and walk away, we don’t tell traditional
biographies here. Come if you want to overcome the fact that you were
born, that you are here and that you use the instruments of this world. This
is a theatre that refuses representation (when there is no representation, real
performances appear – this isn’t my opinion).1

This is the beginning of a manifesto that Socìetas Raffaelo Sanzio handed

out to audiences before performances of Santa Sofia. Teatro Khmer, which
the company premiered in 1986.
The production was a stage adaptation of the company’s theatrical phi-
losophy at that time. It expressed the company’s objection to theatrical
convention in Italian institutional theatre of that period but, above all,
it formulated their own vision of theatre. It was a radical concept which
involved severing the relationship between theatre and the surrounding
reality with its sacred, institutionalised boundaries that structured public
space and our thinking. The choice of Pol Pot for the play’s protagonist—
leader of the Khmer Rouge and dictator of Cambodia in the late 1970s,

© The Author(s) 2016 13

D. Semenowicz, The Theatre of Romeo Castellucci and Socìetas
Raffaello Sanzio, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56390-3_2
14 D. SEMENOWICZ

whose reformative political aspirations were based on the destruction of

all things connected with the Western world—corroborates the radical
character of this severance. As Pol Pot says in the performance:

I hate tradition. Tradition is reality. I hate it. It isn’t a burden to me, not at
all. That which is real is tradition. I speak because everyone speaks. What
hideous surroundings. […] Everything leads to the terrifying predestina-
tion. The year of birth is horrible. It introduces us into an epoch. Imposes
on us the style of the century. Believe me, something lives in your stead: it’s
tradition. Fetters of the real. Fetters of evil. Fetters of political forces. You
are nothing, believe me, you are a metaphor of tradition. They force me to
be real, they force me to answer. Force me to accept music, literature, medi-
cine as given. Physics is presented to me as the result of ages of searching
which I have to submit myself to. I didn’t contribute to its development,
and yet I have to yield to it. I hate physics. Its age doesn’t frighten me. A
few centuries is less than nothing. […] Everything is foreseen. Absolutely
everything. Everything is stable, because everything is foreseeable. Let’s be
honest: all reality is foreseeable.2

Tradition appears in Santa Sofia. Teatro Khmer in the form of a child

whose toys are being burnt in the first scenes of the performance. As
Pol Pot will say: ‘Tradition was disguised as a child to arouse my pity.’3
The child is also a reference to historical events in Cambodia. Aiming to
destroy tradition, to break with the Western-related past, the dictator gave
power to children who function outside history.
Thus, Castellucci’s thoughts on image have their roots in a hatred of
reality. What is the point of presenting images of the world which we
participate in everyday, anyway? Reality is connected here with the vis-
ible and familiar world and with tradition, which in Santa Sofia became
synonymous with culture. Customs, behaviours, rules governing reality
that we confront every day are legitimised by history. It is the guaran-
tor of that which has been tamed, and so is reliable and safe. Since our
birth, we exist within a specific order; we are embedded in systems that
control our functioning in the world. Breaking with them is practicable
only by spending time in an alternative reality, which theatre can cre-
ate. ‘Theatre presents a reality which isn’t an everyday reality, but a
potential reality.’4 However, what is left for us there, if the empirical
world determined by tradition is denied? What other language is pos-
sible? How to build, and what should the foundations of this different
reality be?
 THE KHMER THEATRE 15

In order to better understand Castellucci’s strategy, let us go back to

the production Kaputt Necropolis, made two years before Santa Sofia. It
is also a stage adaptation of the theatrical philosophy of Socìetas, although
less explicit than the one which followed.
In Kaputt Necropolis,5 severance with determinants imposed by reality
came about through reflection on language. According to Socìetas, tradi-
tion predetermines how and what we say. Language is imposed on us and
we learn from the day we are born how to function within it. Our rela-
tionship with language is one of submission, dominance and dependence.
Language in the production becomes the symbol of existential shackles.
Not only do we have no control over it, it also expresses the finitude of
the human condition. To show the word’s finite character and, at the same
time, emphasise the theatrical ritual, Socìetas decided to perform an exper-
iment: they created their own language, Generalissima, ‘able to express
any thought’. This constructed language was the outcome of studies on
Creole languages6 and the writings of Ramon Llull, a thirteenth-century
scholastic, poet and theologian who created a mechanical device in his Ars
generalis ultima. This was a logic machine which consisted of concentric
rings with symbols of theological concepts and basic natural structures.
Rotation of the rings produced different combinations that gave either
true or false sentences. Thus, theological statements proved themselves,
corroborating the tenets of Christianity.
Constructing Generalissima, Claudia Castellucci arranged words in
four concentric rings inscribed in one another, which made up four lev-
els: the outside ring consisted of 400 selected Italian words, their combi-
nations revealed another ring comprising 80 words, while combinations
of these 80 words gave another 16, with the final four, agone, apotema,
meteora, blok, emerging out of the 16. The outside ring gathered the
names of objects, concrete and abstract activities and adverbs (in groups
of five). For example, in this outside ring there appeared words such as
‘no’, ‘grammar’, ‘to steal’, ‘consciousness’, ‘always’, ‘obvious’, ‘moun-
tain’, ‘full’ and ‘monotony’; and then in the next ring words such as ‘bed’,
‘north’, ‘school’, ‘law’, ‘society’, ‘to think’, ‘to want’ and ‘weakness’.
These were then categorised in more and more general ‘drawers’ in the
inside, or abstract, rings. The four words from the central ring were to
express all others, encompass all intermediary words, which only ‘stain
the purity of the first [central ring] because they describe what should
have already been understood’.7 Therefore the words in the outside ring
are ‘the weakest of all. These are the words for beginners. You need to be
16 D. SEMENOWICZ

patient,’8 as one of the characters in the performance said while teaching

the new language. Actors in the performance moved from one ring to
another. When they were left with the four final words, they communi-
cated almost telepathically.
The performance used scholastic rituals, philosophical tests and inven-
tions whose purpose was to describe the universality of the world in ratio-
nal and mathematical terms; it drew on the utopian attempts to capture
and thus comprehend, gain control over and preserve the essence of real-
ity. A point of reference for the group’s search was also Giordano Bruno,
who created a mnemonic machine based on Llull’s mechanism.9 The phi-
losopher placed basic images from the classical art of memory on concen-
tric rings divided into 30 segments, each of which was then divided into
five more parts, creating diverse combinations when rotated. The mne-
monic rings gathered knowledge and organised it, and were an attempt
to explain the laws governing the world, including its spiritual domain.
The efforts of Bruno and Llull were, in fact, no different from subsequent
attempts of the Encyclopedists. They were intellectual undertakings which
aimed to create a compendium of knowledge in the realms of science,
religion, art and craft. They showed that religion is not a precondition for
human inquiries and expanding knowledge, and that the world’s phenom-
ena can be accounted for outside of it.
Generalissima categorised reality, organised it and reduced it to the
four most general categories. The production, however, did not reveal
the organising mechanism behind it. In a similar manner to Bruno and
Llull, who tried to free themselves from religious determinants shaping
the outlook on the world in their times, Socìetas wanted predominantly
in Kaputt Necropolis to free themselves from tradition, symbolised by lan-
guage appropriated by the ideology of the media and reduced to convey-
ing a message. Still, in 2011, Castellucci underlined that, repeating Guy
Debord: ‘spectacle, media, communication turned into an ideology that
obscures all other domains of language. We are all the time immersed in
communication! Communication always entails message, meaning and dis-
course that are repeated forever.’10 The Socìetas invention did not serve to
ridicule language or the kind of theatre based on language. Generalissima
was a language that presented its own limits. Four words, which could
not be reduced further and were able to express everything, remained out
of 400 words. It was a language that was reaching the limits of expres-
sion, revealing from the inside its finite, limited character. Its nature was
to remind the spectator about his or her condition of a being doomed to
 THE KHMER THEATRE 17

death. Already in Kaputt Necropolis, theatre appears as an ‘ultimate terri-

tory, territory without protection, in which the human condition is funda-
mentally that of a speaking being with a privileged relationship with death
[…]. Theatre is the most carnal art and the closest to the experience of
finitude in comparison with all the other arts. Theatre is the only art that
does not deliver anything. […] There is nothing else which is so flagrant,
so close to life.’11
Castellucci seems to link language with death, following Giorgio
Agamben’s Language and Death. Was Agamben one of the authors that
Socìetas read during that period? It is hard to say. Both Claudia and
Romeo Castellucci admit he was a remarkably important philosopher in
the process of shaping their reflections on theatre. They claim, however,
that he appeared later for them. Yet his book Language and Death was
published two years before Kaputt Necropolis, while Infancy and History
came out even earlier, in 1979. In the latter text, the philosopher already
wonders whether it is possible to show the essence of language, that is, its
mediating character; to describe it in a way that would consist not only
of general statements about its qualities, but would also not be a meta-
language. The intention would be to remain in the borderland between
meaningful speech and mere indication. Generalissima—an experimental
formula following a certain logic but granting its user full freedom—pre-
cisely demonstrated that mediating character of language. Generalissima
did not mean anything, lead to anything or express any particular content.
It was neither a means nor a target, but it made the tool of communica-
tion become visible. It was a presentation of the very possibility of making
something communicational. This concept would become the foundation
of Castellucci’s theatre, which would develop the relationship with the
audience based, first, on the intensity of experience (through the real pres-
ence of the body and intense emotions) and only second on the analysis
of symbols and themes from the performances. Hence, the fictitious lan-
guage was the first attempt to communicate with the spectator outside of
meaning and paved the way for further searching on the part of Socìetas.12
These acts of reduction, of remaining in the borderland area, of striv-
ing to achieve a utopian, direct communication characteristic of the
Generalissima language in Kaputt Necropolis, were transposed in Santa
Sofia to the level of image. It seems, however, that the earlier produc-
tion already featured an attempt to translate the reflection on language
into the visual sphere of the performance. It may come as a surprise
to those who have followed the aesthetic of the company’s work only
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2 qts. raw, salt codfish, in small pieces
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Pot Roast
12 lbs. beef from round or rump
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Have the butcher bone and roll the meat, if it is from the rump.
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and put it into a cooker for nine hours or more. Before serving bring
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quarts of brown sauce. Strain the liquor in the pail and use it for the
sauce. If there is fat on the top of the liquor remove it and use it in
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Brown Sauce
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Beef à la Mode
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Irish Stew
5 lbs. clear meat
21⁄2 qts. potatoes, in dice
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11⁄2 cups onions, sliced
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1 teaspoon pepper
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Serves forty or fifty persons.

Beef Stew à la Mode

10 lbs. beef brisket
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Boiled Dinner
8 lbs. lean, salt pork
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6 lbs. clear, lean mutton
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Cook it as directed on page 111.

Serves forty or fifty persons.
 Creamy Potatoes
1 pk. potatoes
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1 tablespoon pepper
11⁄3 cups butter

One peck of potatoes will make about ten quarts when prepared
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Macaroni Italienne
2 qts. macaroni, in one-inch pieces
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8 medium-sized onions
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Turkish Pilaf
1 qt. rice
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1⁄ cup butter
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Cook it as directed on page 149, without the lower pail of water.

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Pork and Beans

2 qts. dried beans
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9 qts. water
3 tablespoons salt
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3⁄ teaspoon pepper
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Soak the beans, drain them, cook them for seven hours or more,
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Suet Pudding
3 cups chopped suet
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11⁄2 tablespoons soda
11⁄2 tablespoons salt
11⁄2 teaspoons ginger
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1 tablespoon cinnamon

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Rice Pudding
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11⁄2 cups rice
3⁄ teaspoon salt
4
1⁄ cup butter
3

Cook it as directed on page 162, except that the outer pail of

water may be omitted. If served cold and not browned, omit the
butter.
Serves thirty or thirty-five persons.

Indian Pudding
3 qts. water
41⁄2 qts. milk (scalding hot)
1 qt. cornmeal
2 tablespoons salt
1⁄ cup ginger
4
11⁄2 qts. molasses

Mix the dry ingredients with one pint of the water, add them to the
boiling water and molasses, add the milk. Let all come to a boil and
put it into a cooker for ten hours or more. Put it into baking dishes
and brown it, or serve it without browning, either plain or with
cream.
Serves forty or fifty persons.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

6 qts. milk
3 qts. soft breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups sugar
18 eggs
3⁄ lb. chocolate
4
2 tablespoons vanilla

Cook it as directed on page 164, in three pudding pans, set over

cooker-pails of water.
Serves forty or fifty persons.

Stewed Apples
15 qts. prepared apples
3⁄ teaspoon whole cloves
4
7 lbs. sugar
2 lemons
11⁄2 qts. water

Cook them as directed on page 168.

Serves thirty-five to forty-five persons.

Apple Sauce
1 pk. sour apples
11⁄2 qts. water
3 lbs. sugar

Cook it as directed on page 168.

Serves forty-five to fifty persons.
 XXIII
THE INSULATED OVEN

M
any women in these days will find it difficult to believe that it
is possible to bake without the constant presence of fire, but
our great-grandmothers were well aware that foods
continued to cook in the brick ovens long after the fire in them had
burned out or was raked out. The insulated oven represents an
adaptation of old-fashioned ideas to new and modern conditions.
Although we cannot go back to the days of brick ovens, superior as
they were, in certain respects, to the portable range with its quickly
fluctuating heat and great waste from radiation, yet the insulated
oven will not be found impossible or very difficult to set up, and the
adventurous woman will, perhaps, not be content until she has tried
this development of the fireless cooker.
 Insulated oven with stones and pan in place.

The advantages of an insulated oven lie in the even brown and

thorough baking which it gives; the development and retention of
flavours, which is greater than with ordinary baking; the economy in
fuel where food requires long cooking; the absence of heat in the
kitchen; and the possibility of baking where only a camp-fire is
obtainable.
The principle is the same whether a portable oven is insulated or a
cooker-pail is utilized. There must be hot stone slabs, iron plates,
fire-brick, or some such heat-radiators, which can be made very hot
and which will retain their heat well. Stones or fire-brick are
preferable to iron in this respect. There must be insulation for the
oven or utensil, and cooking will then proceed, although somewhat
differently from the familiar method of baking with a fire.
 TO INSULATE AN OVEN

Choose as small a portable oven as will hold the food to be

cooked, since the larger the oven the larger or more numerous the
stones must be to heat it. Very large stones are heavy and awkward
to manage, and with their number the cost of using the oven
increases. A portable oven is on the market which is about thirteen
inches in each dimension. This is a good size for a family of four or
five. Cut six pieces of heavy sheet asbestos, fitting one to each
surface of the oven, except the door, and two to the bottom. One of
the two pieces for the bottom is to go inside the oven. Place the
asbestos so that it entirely covers the oven. These pieces may be
tied on temporarily to hold them in place during packing. Select a
box which is at least two or three inches larger in every dimension
than the corresponding dimension of the oven. It should be fitted
with cover and hasp just as any cooker. Lay it, while packing, with
the cover opening upward. Pack in the bottom a sufficient layer of
insulating material, such as is used for other cookers, to raise the
oven to within a couple of inches of the top. Place the oven, lying
upon its back, on this layer with the door uppermost, and opening in
the same direction as the cover of the box. Pack on all sides around
it till level with the door.
If desired, a facing may be made to cover the packing material,
from a piece of cloth cut a few inches larger, in each direction, than
the top of the box. Draw on it a square the size of the oven. In the
centre of this cut a small hole to insert the blade of scissors. From
this hole cut diagonally to the corners of the square. When the cloth
is put in place over the packing the triangular flaps thus made may
be tucked between the asbestos and the packing, while the edges of
the cloth may be tucked between the packing and the sides of the
box. Fit a cushion that will fill the space left at the top and nail it to
the cover of the box. Face this with a piece of the sheet asbestos
nailed into place. It will be well to reinforce the nail-heads with little
rounds of tin, in order to prevent them from pushing through the
soft asbestos. The box is then ready for use and should be stood up
on end so that the cover will open like a door, and the oven will be
right side up. The extra piece of asbestos may be laid in the bottom,
the stones heated, and the food put in to cook.
Method of using the oven. Heat the slabs very gradually the first
time that they are used. It will be best to put an asbestos mat or
piece of the sheet asbestos between a hot gas flame and the stones
for a few minutes, not turning the gas on full force for the first five
minutes. After the first using it will be safe to heat the stones
directly over the flame, providing it is not burning with full force for
the first few minutes. The degree of heat in the stones will regulate
the heat of the oven. For most baking, the centre of the top side of
the stones should be about as hot as a flatiron for ironing. This will
mean that the side toward the flame is very much hotter, perhaps
red hot. Another and better test is the browning of a piece of white
tissue paper laid on the centre of the stones when they are put on to
heat. When this grows a shade darker than manila paper, or a
golden brown, the stones are right for loaf cakes, pastry, apples,
potatoes, beans, scalloped dishes, most puddings, and bread. For a
hot oven the paper should be a rich brown. This is suitable for
biscuits, small cakes, roasting meat, etc.
Although gas is the fuel here mentioned any other fuel will serve
to heat the stones, provided a hot enough flame can be procured.
The stones may, when warmed, be set directly on a hot coal or
wood fire to complete the heating, and, for out-of-doors use, a crude
fireplace might be built up of rough stones to support the
soapstones or they may be buried directly in the hot coals. In such a
case it will probably be necessary to have some device, perhaps ice-
tongs, for removing the stones, as the metal handles might in time
become burned off, bent, or weakened so as to be unsafe.
Small soapstone griddles or foot-warmers make excellent slabs for
the home-made insulated oven. Griddles are on the market that are
as small as twelve inches in diameter, and foot-warmers come in
many sizes. Those measuring eight by ten inches will be about as
large as most women can easily handle, since they are thicker than
the griddles, and are very heavy for their size. It will not be difficult
to get an extra handle fitted to these, which will make them less
awkward to manage. For baking many loaves of bread and cake, and
for foods to cook over night, or for many hours, more than two
stones may be necessary to maintain enough heat.
The oven should not be opened during the baking, but if the food
is not found to be cooked when it is opened, it may be quickly
closed again, and left till the food is done. A succession of articles
may be baked in an already heated oven by quickly removing the
finished article and one or two stones to be reheated and tested,
and slipped again into place. In this case the door of the oven
should be instantly closed after removing anything from it. This
method of baking a number of things in quick succession is very
economical as a few minutes will reheat the already warm stones.
Lay one hot stone on the asbestos at the bottom of the oven with
the hotter side down; put a wire oven shelf on this, and the food on
the wire shelf. If the food will not rise higher than the top of the
pan, a hot stone may be laid directly across the pan, but if this is not
possible place the second wire shelf as close over the food as the
cleats at the side of the oven will permit, and the stone on this shelf,
also with the hot side down. In case more than one pan is to go in
at once, and two stones will not supply enough heat, hot flatirons or
stove lids may be used to supplement them. It is often convenient,
when the oven is heated for baking one article, to put other things in
to cook at the same time, even though they may not require
browning. For instance: A chicken or roast may be cooking between
two stones, while on top of the upper stone the giblets may be
stewing in water, or some vegetables be boiling. It will be best in
such cases to heat these foods till boiling before putting them in the
oven, or they will cool it too much. Such foods, as do not require
browning, will not need another stone on top. It may not be wise to
put so much watery food in the oven when baking anything so
critical as bread or loaves of cake, as it cools the oven to some
extent.
No matter how carefully the directions are given and followed
some experimentation will probably be required before a novice, or
even an experienced cook, will feel at ease with this new method of
cookery, since the conditions may be so variable. But there is no
reason why a careful observation of results and their causes should
not soon lead one to become mistress of her own insulated oven,
and it is likely that she will then become sufficiently attached to it to
justify her perseverance.
In case a cooker-pail is to be utilized for baking it will be well to
surround it, on top, bottom, and sides, with the heavy sheet
asbestos described for insulating the oven. A wire rack will be
needed for separating the food from too direct contact with the hot
stones, and some device, such, perhaps, as an inverted wire frying-
basket for supporting the upper stone.
LIST OF ARTICLES REQUIRED FOR MAKING AND USING AN
INSULATED OVEN
Box.
Hinges.
Hasp.
Packing material, hay, excelsior, etc.
Portable oven.
Two or more stone slabs, or iron plates.
Cooking utensils, baking pans, etc.
Cloth for facing and cushion.
Nails and screws.
One dozen small rounds of tin about one inch in diameter.
One and one-quarter yards sheet asbestos (price about 20 cents a
yard).

Roast Beef
Weigh the meat, trim off all parts which will not be good to serve,
and save them for soups or stews. Wipe the meat clean with a damp
cloth. Dredge it well with salt, pepper, and flour, put it into a dripping
pan, and cook it in an insulated oven heated as directed for roasts of
meat on page 225. Heat the pan and meat a little before putting
them into the oven. The time for roasting beef depends upon the
size and shape of the roasts. Thick pieces weighing under ten
pounds will roast rare in twelve minutes to a pound, medium rare in
from fifteen to eighteen minutes, and well done in twenty-five or
thirty minutes a pound. Thin pieces will take a few minutes less to
each pound.

Roast Mutton or Lamb

Prepare the meat for roasting as directed for roast beef. Cook it in
an insulated oven heated as directed for roasts on page 225,
allowing twenty-five minutes to each pound for lamb, and from
fifteen to eighteen minutes for mutton.

Roast Veal
Prepare the meat for roasting as directed for roast beef. Cook it in
an insulated oven, heated as for roast beef, allowing from twenty-
five to thirty minutes for each pound.

Spareribs
Wipe the meat clean with a damp cloth; sprinkle it with pepper
and salt, put it in a pan, and roast it in an insulated oven, heated as
directed for roasts on page 225, allowing twenty minutes or more to
each pound. Heat the pan and meat a little before putting it in the
oven.

Brown Gravy for Roasts

Drain away all fat from the pan, leaving the brown sediment. Add
to this enough water to make the desired amount of gravy. Using
this in the place of stock or water make Brown Sauce, using a
measured quantity of the fat from the roast. Various seasonings may
be added to this sauce to make a variety. Wine, Worcestershire
sauce, ketchup, currant jelly, etc., are used in this way.

Roast Chicken
Draw, stuff, and truss a chicken as directed on page 130. Put it on
its back in a baking-pan, lay strips of fat salt pork on the breast, or
rub breast, legs, and wings with butter or clarified veal fat. Dredge it
well with salt and pepper. Heat the pan and chicken over the fire for
a few minutes, and put it into an insulated oven heated as directed
for roasts on page 225. Allow twenty-five minutes a pound for
roasting chicken. Remove the string and skewers and serve it with
Brown Gravy for Roasts to which the chopped giblets have been
added. The giblets may be cooked, with salted water to cover them,
in the insulated oven at the same time that the chicken is roasting;
but in this case the stones should be hotter than otherwise.

Roast Goose
Singe and remove the pin-feathers from a goose. Wash it in hot,
soapy water. Draw it and rinse it in cold water. Fill it two-thirds full
with Stuffing for Poultry, or Potato Stuffing. Truss it, and rub the
surface with butter, or lay fat salt pork on the breast. Dredge it with
salt and pepper, heat it to warm the pan, and roast it in an insulated
oven heated as directed for roasts on page 225, allowing fifteen or
twenty minutes a pound.

Roast Leg of Venison

Prepare and cook it as roast mutton, allowing from twelve to
fifteen minutes a pound for it to roast. Venison should be served
rare, with Brown Gravy for Roasts, to one pint of which one-half
tumbler of currant jelly and two tablespoonfuls of sherry wine have
been added.

Potato Stuffing
2 cups hot potato, mashed
1 cup soft, stale breadcrumbs
1⁄ cup chopped salt pork
4
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1⁄ cup melted butter
4
1⁄ cup milk
3
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon powdered sage
1 egg

Mix the ingredients in the order given.

 Roast Wild Duck
Draw, clean, and truss a wild duck in the same manner as a
goose. If it is to be stuffed, use Stuffing for Poultry, omitting the
herbs; or merely fill the cavity with pared and quartered apples, or
pared, whole onions. These should be removed before serving, but
Stuffing for Poultry should be served with the duck. Roast it for from
twenty to thirty minutes in an insulated oven, the stones heated a
little hotter than for other roast meats. Serve it with mashed potato
and currant jelly.

Grouse
Draw and clean a grouse, remove the feathers and the tough skin
of the breast. Lard the breast and legs. Truss it, and lay fat salt pork
on the breast. Dredge it with salt and flour, put it into the roasting-
pan with scraps of fat salt pork. Roast it for twenty or twenty-five
minutes in an insulated oven heated as for wild duck. Remove the
strings or skewers, sprinkle it with browned breadcrumbs, and
garnish it with parsley.

Roast Quail
Prepare the quail in the same way as grouse. Roast it for fifteen or
twenty minutes in an insulated oven heated as for duck.

Roast Plover
Prepare and cook it the same as quail.

Potted Fish
3 shad or 6 small mackerel
1⁄ cup salt
3
1⁄ teaspoon cayenne pepper
8
1⁄ cup whole cloves
6
1⁄ cup peppercorns
6
1⁄ cup whole allspice
6
1 onion, sliced
Vinegar to cover
 Clean the fish, remove the head, tail, fins, skin, and large bones.
The small bones will be dissolved in the vinegar. Cut the fish into
pieces for serving. Mix the salt, pepper, and spices. Pack the fish in
layers in a small stone crock or deep agate-ware utensil, sprinkling
the salt and adding pieces of onion between the layers. Pour over it
vinegar to completely cover it. In the absence of a tight-fitting cover,
use heavy, buttered paper tied on. Bake it for five or six hours in an
insulated oven, the stones heated until the paper test shows a
delicate brown. Potted fish will keep well if put into a cold place and
kept covered with vinegar. It makes a good relish for lunch or tea.

Pork and Beans

1 cup beans
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon molasses
1 tablespoon butter, or
1⁄ lb. salt pork
8
Water to cover

Cook the beans for four or more hours, as directed in the recipe
for dried navy beans. Put them into a baking-dish, add the other
ingredients, gashing the pork frequently and laying it on top. Put it
into an insulated oven with stones that will turn white tissue paper a
golden brown. Bake them for eight hours or more.

Baked Potatoes
Select potatoes of equal size, so that they will all bake in the same
length of time; wash them and bake them in an insulated oven with
the stones heated till the paper is a golden brown as explained in
the test on page 225. Good-sized potatoes (eight ounces) should
bake about forty-five minutes. Lay them on a rack to prevent them
from touching the hot stone. They will bake better than in an
ordinary oven.

Macaroni and Ham

1 cup macaroni, in one-inch pieces
 1 small onion, grated
11⁄2 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon flour
1⁄ teaspoon pepper
6
1⁄ teaspoon salt
4
1
1 ⁄2 cups minced, cooked ham
2 cups buttered crumbs

Cook the macaroni as directed in the recipe for macaroni. Make

white sauce of the milk, butter, flour, and seasoning, add the onion,
ham, and macaroni. Put it into a buttered baking-dish, cover the top
with the crumbs, and bake it until the crumbs are brown, heating
the stones until the paper test shows a golden brown.
Serves six or eight persons.

Scalloped Oysters
1 pt. or 30 oysters
3 cups buttered crumbs
1⁄ teaspoon salt
2
1⁄ cup oyster juice
4
1 tablespoon finely chopped celery leaves
Few grains pepper

Wash the oysters, strain the juice through cheese-cloth. Put one-
fourth of the crumbs in the bottom of a baking dish, add half the
oysters, half the salt and pepper and celery leaves; repeat these
layers, pour over it the oyster juice, and put the remaining crumbs
on top. Bake it in an insulated oven till brown, as directed for
scalloped dishes, page 225. If double this recipe is used allow three-
quarters of an hour for the baking, and do not heat the stones quite
so hot.

Macaroni and Cheese

1 cup macaroni in one-inch pieces
1 cup grated or shaved cheese
1⁄ teaspoon salt
2
1⁄ teaspoon pepper
8
 2 cups buttered crumbs

Cook the macaroni in salted water as directed in the recipe for

macaroni. When tender, drain it and add the salt, pepper, and
cheese. Turn it into a buttered baking-dish and cover the top with
the crumbs. Bake it until the crumbs are brown, heating the stones
until the paper test shows a golden brown.
Serves six or seven persons.

Scalloped Chicken and Mushrooms

2 cups buttered crumbs
11⁄2 cups cold, cooked chicken or fowl
1 cup White Sauce
1⁄ teaspoon celery salt
6
1⁄ cup mushrooms
2

Cut the chicken in small pieces, slice or cut the mushrooms small.
Put one-fourth of the crumbs into a buttered baking-dish. Mix the
other ingredients and pour them into the dish. Spread the remaining
crumbs on top and bake it in an insulated oven till brown, as
directed for scalloped dishes, page 225.

Scalloped Tomatoes
1 can of whole tomatoes, or
8 good-sized raw tomatoes
3 cups soft breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon salt
1⁄ teaspoon pepper
4
1 small onion

If canned tomatoes are used, drain away the liquid from them,
using only the solid tomatoes. If raw tomatoes are used, scald them
in boiling water and remove the skins and hard core. Melt the butter,
add the crumbs, and stir them lightly until they are evenly buttered.
Put one cupful in the bottom of a baking dish, lay the tomatoes over
them, sprinkle the salt, pepper and grated onion over these and
cover the top with the remaining crumbs. Bake them for one hour in
an insulated oven, heating the stones until the paper test, given on
page 225, shows a light brown colour.
Serves six or eight persons.

Scalloped Apples (Brown Betty)

3 cups chopped sour apples
2 cups soft breadcrumbs
4 tablespoons butter
1⁄ cup brown sugar
2
1⁄ teaspoon cinnamon
4
1⁄ teaspoon nutmeg
4
1⁄ lemon, juice and rind
2
1⁄ cup water
4

Melt the butter, add the crumbs, and stir them till they are evenly
buttered. Mix the spice and grated rind with the sugar. Divide the
buttered crumbs in quarters. Into a buttered baking dish put one-
fourth of the crumbs. On this layer spread one-half the apples, then
one-half the sugar. Sprinkle half of the lemon juice and water over
this. Repeat these layers with one-fourth the crumbs and the
remaining apple, sugar, etc. Cover the top with the crumbs that are
left. Bake it for one hour and a half in an insulated oven. The stones
should be heated till the test given on page 225 will show the papers
a delicate brown colour. Look at the apples at the end of one hour,
closing the oven after a quick glance, and alter the heat of the oven,
if necessary. Serve it with Hard Sauce.
Serves five or six persons.

Rice Pudding
1 qt. milk
1⁄ cup rice
4
1⁄ cup sugar
2
1⁄ teaspoon salt
8
1⁄ teaspoon nutmeg
8

Put all the ingredients together in a baking-dish. Bake it for three

hours in an insulated oven. The stones should be heated until the
paper test, given on page 225, will show a light brown shade. The
pudding, if correctly baked, will be creamy, with a golden brown, soft
crust on top.
Serves five or six persons.

Pastry for Two Crusts

11⁄4 cups pastry flour
1⁄ teaspoon baking-powder
2
1⁄ teaspoon salt
4
1⁄ or 1⁄ cup butter or lard
3 2
Water

Mix and sift the dry ingredients together; cut the butter or lard in
with a fork. Add enough water to make a paste barely moist enough
to hold together, using a knife and cutting through the dough to mix
it. Roll half of it with as little pressure of the rolling-pin as possible,
until it is about one-eighth of an inch thick. If a two-crust pie is to be
made, lay this crust on the inside of an unbuttered pie plate, trim
the edge, and put the trimmings with the remaining paste and roll it
out for the upper crust. If a single under crust is to be used, as for
lemon pie, lay the paste on the outside of a pie plate, trim the edge
and prick through the crust in several places. Bake it for about
fifteen minutes in a moderate insulated oven, with the pie plate
upside down in the oven. Remove the baked crust and fill it.

Apple Pie
Sour apples
1⁄ cup sugar
2
1 lemon, juice and rind
1⁄ tablespoon butter
2
1⁄ teaspoon cinnamon
8

Make pie crust by the preceding recipe, put half of it in the bottom
of the plate. Pare enough apples to fill the pie heaping full, when
cored and cut into eighths. Fill the pie with the apples, spread the
sugar and cinnamon and grated rind over them. Roll out the upper
crust, cut several gashes in it to allow steam to escape; lay it over
the pie, trim the edges and press them together with a fork. Bind
the edge of the pie by laying around it a wet strip of cloth about one
inch wide. Bake it for one-half hour in an insulated oven with the
stones heated until the paper test shows a golden brown colour.
Apple and berry pies are better made without an under crust in an
extra deep pie plate.

Berry Pie
Pick over the berries. Line a deep plate with crust, or omit the
lower crust; fill the pie heaping full of berries, cover them with one-
half cupful or more of sugar mixed with one-fourth cupful of flour.
Add the upper crust, bind it, and bake it as apple pie. The amount of
sugar will depend upon the acidity of the fruit.

Cherry or Plum Pie

Wash the fruit, remove the stones, and make the pie in the same
manner as berry pie.

Pumpkin Pie
11⁄2 cups cooked pumpkin
1 cup boiling milk
1 egg
1⁄ cup sugar
2
1⁄ teaspoon salt
4
1⁄ teaspoon cinnamon
3

Cook the pumpkin as directed on page 152. Put it into a cloth and
press it with the back of a strong spoon to squeeze out the water.
Mix all the ingredients, put it into a pan set over a cooker-pail of
boiling water; stir it until it is 165 degrees Fahrenheit, then put the
whole into a cooker for one hour. Fill the baked crust with the
mixture. Cover the top thickly with whipped cream.

Lemon Pie
1⁄ cup flour
2
1 cup sugar, granulated
 1 cup boiling water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Rind of one lemon
4 teaspoons butter
1⁄ cup powdered sugar
4
2 eggs

Mix the sugar and flour together, add the boiling water slowly,
stirring it all the time. Boil it gently for twenty minutes, stirring it
frequently. Mix the lemon with the yolks, pour the hot mixture slowly
on the yolks, return it to the fire and cook it below boiling point until
the eggs have thickened; then add the butter. Cool the filling a little
before putting it into a baked crust. Beat the whites of eggs until
very stiff, add the sugar, and when barely mixed with the whites,
spread it over the pie for a meringue; bake it till a delicate brown in
a very hot oven, or put it for a few minutes into an insulated oven
with one very hot stone close over the pie. Serve it warm, but not
hot.
Serves five or six persons.

Baked Apples
Wash and core sour apples of uniform size. Put them into a
pudding dish, fill the cores with sugar, and if more is desired put it
into the bottom of the dish, not over the apples. Pour in enough
boiling water to fill the dish one-fourth full. Bake them in an
insulated oven for one-half to three-quarters of an hour, depending
upon the size and ripeness of the apples. The stones should be
heated until the paper test shows a golden brown colour.

Baked Spiced Apples

6 apples
30 cloves
2 cups water
2⁄ cup sugar
3
6 slices lemon

Pare the apples, remove the cores and stick five whole cloves into
each apple. Make a syrup of the water and sugar. Put the apples into
a pudding dish, pour the syrup over them, and place a slice of lemon
over the top of each. Bake them in a slow insulated oven for one
hour with the stones heated until the paper test shows a light
brown.

Baked Pears
Prepare and cook the pears as directed for baked sweet apples. If
desired, a bit of butter the size of a bean may be put on each pear
before baking.

Baked Quinces
Prepare and cook the quinces as directed in the recipe for baked
sweet apples. Twice as much sugar and water will be required for
quinces, and, perhaps, more time for baking. This will depend upon
the size and ripeness of the fruit. It is usually cut in halves before
baking.

Baked Sweet Apples

8 sweet apples
1⁄ cup sugar
3
1 cup boiling water

Prepare the apples as for baked apples. Cook them in a slow

insulated oven, for about three hours. The stones should be heated
until the paper barely changes colour, as explained in the test given
on page 225.

Bread
1 pt. water or milk
1 tablespoon butter or lard
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1⁄ cake compressed or 1⁄ cake dry yeast and
4 2
1⁄ cup warm water, or
2
1⁄ cup liquid yeast
2
Flour to make a dough
 Soak the yeast for a few minutes in the half cupful of warm water.
Scald the milk or boil the water, add the fat, let it cool till lukewarm,
then add the remaining ingredients, except the flour. If compressed
yeast is used, add as much flour as is needed to make a dough that
may be kneaded. If dry yeast or liquid yeast is used, add only one
and one-half pints of flour; beat the mixture well, and let it rise till
full of bubbles, usually over night; then add the remaining flour. The
rest of the process is the same, no matter what yeast is used. Knead
the dough until it is smooth and elastic, return it to the bowl, set it
in a warm place to rise until it has doubled in size. Knead it again
until all large bubbles are pressed out, mould it into two loaves, put
it into greased pans and let it again rise until it has doubled in size.
Heat the insulated oven stones until the paper test, given on page
225, shows a golden brown. Put the bread in and bake it from fifty
minutes to one hour. If two stones will not make a hot oven for a
large amount of bread to be baked, use hot flatirons or stove lids to
supplement them.

Rolls
Add one tablespoon of butter to the recipe for bread, or knead the
butter into the dough just before moulding it. Shape it into rolls, put
them into a buttered pan, and when risen to a little more than
double their size, bake them for twenty minutes in an insulated oven
with stones that will turn the paper a rich brown, as explained in the
test on page 225.

Baking Powder Biscuits

4 teaspoons baking-powder, or
1 teaspoon soda and two teaspoons cream of tartar
1 pt. flour
1⁄ teaspoon salt
2
2 tablespoons butter or lard
3⁄ to 1 cup milk or water
4

Mix and sift the dry ingredients, work in the fat with the fingers, or
mash it in with a fork. Add the liquid, one-third at a time, mixing the
dough in three separate portions in the bowl. Cut through these
three masses until they are barely mixed, then roll the dough to
about one-half inch thickness; cut it into biscuits, lay them on a
greased pan, brush the tops with milk or melted butter, and bake
them for fifteen or twenty minutes in an insulated oven with stones
heated so as to turn the paper a rich, dark brown, as explained in
the test on page 225.

Cup Cake
1⁄ cup butter
2
1 cup sugar
11⁄2 cups flour
2 eggs
1⁄ cup milk
2
1⁄ teaspoon nutmeg, or
2
1 teaspoon vanilla
11⁄2 teaspoons baking-powder
1⁄ teaspoon salt
4

Cream the butter, add the sugar, then the beaten yolks of eggs.
Mix and sift the dry ingredients, add them, one-third at a time, to
the butter mixture, alternating with the milk. Beat the whites till stiff,
add them and the vanilla, beat the dough till barely mixed, and pour
it into a greased pan. The dough should not much more than half fill
the pan. Bake it for forty minutes in an insulated oven, tested as
explained on page 225, for loaves of cake.
This recipe may be varied by adding one-half cupful of raisins,
currants, chopped citron or nuts. Or two ounces of chocolate may be
melted and added to the dough.
If baked in layers or in gem pans the stones must be heated
somewhat hotter than for a loaf cake. Allow fifteen or twenty
minutes in the oven.

Sour Cream Cake

3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
3⁄ cup thick sour cream
4
 1⁄ teaspoon soda
2
1⁄
2 teaspoon baking powder
1
1 ⁄2 cups flour
1⁄ teaspoon nutmeg
4
1 cup raisins

Beat the yolks of the eggs, add the sugar, then the cream. Mix and
sift the dry ingredients, add them to the liquid mixture, then add the
raisins, which have been floured with a little of the measured flour,
and, lastly, the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Put it into a greased
pan and bake it for forty minutes in an insulated oven, heated for
loaf cake, as explained in the test on page 225.

Apple Sauce Cake

(Made without butter, milk or eggs)
1⁄ cup white veal or beef drippings
2
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour apple sauce
11⁄2 teaspoons cinnamon
1⁄ teaspoon cloves
4
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup raisins
1 teaspoon soda
2 cups flour

Mix the ingredients in the order given, beat the dough well, put it
into a greased pan, and bake it for forty minutes in an insulated
oven, heated for loaf cakes, as explained on page 225.
This cake seems, when baked, very much like any spice cake.

Sponge Cake
6 eggs
1 cup sugar
Juice and rind of 1⁄2 lemon
1 cup flour
1⁄ teaspoon salt
4

Beat the yolks of the eggs, add the sugar and lemon; beat the
whites of eggs till stiff, add them to the mixture, and when barely