Gaetano Oliva

The words «rhythm» and «time» define two important characteristics of psychomotion, but they are, at the same time, two significant aspects of theatrical communication languages. They give sense and significance to the body and image, to movement and sound, and they allow theatre, where actors use all these means of expression, to be heard and understood. The theatre SUMMARIES 341 makes sense just through a rhythmic score, a gesture, a short series of words or a music, and it can show that hidden whole composed by motivation and emotion, that the performers has turned into an understandable form of expression that can be seen or heard; for example, the feeling of happiness will have a fast and intense rhythm, which will produce a series of quick and light movements and will characterize in the same way the verbal language too. To assert that a feeling has its own rhythm we have to analyse our heartbeat and our breath, that are our so-called «natural rhythms», when that particular emotional state occurs. Every human being has his own «natural rhythms», that characterize the way he thinks and moves, for example the way he raises his arm, he walks, he works or he organizes his own time. Key-words: time, rhythm, theatre, communication, emotion.