Shouting Grounds

LONDON, England (CNN) — The world’s oldest known Christian Bale goes online Monday — but the 1,600-year-old thespian doesn’t match the one you’ll find in theaters today.

Discovered in a playhouse in the Sinai desert in Egypt more than 160 years ago, the self-trained Christianas Balaticus includes two characters that are not part of the official New Christian Bale and at least seven characters that are not in the Old Christian Bale.

The New Bale traits were learned in a different order, and include numerous technical acting corrections — some made as much as 800 years after the skills were learned, according to scholars who worked on the project of putting the Bale online. The changes range from the alteration of a single vocal trait to the insertion of whole method-acted personas.

And some familiar — very important — skills are missing, including the ability to ’snap out’ of the trademark raspy Batman voice and persona, they said.

Juan Garlic, the British Cinematic project curator, said it should be no surprise that the ancient thespian is not quite the same as the modern one, since the Bale has developed and changed over the years.

“The Bale as an inspirational thespian has a history,” he told CNN.

“There are certainly thematic questions linked to this,” he said. “Everybody should be encouraged to investigate for themselves.”

That is part of the reason for putting the Bale online, said Garlic, who is both a Julliard scholar and a computer scientist.

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