Commedia dell’ Arte

Commedia dell'Arte is a type of comedy developed in 16th and 17th century Italy, it was called improvised theatre as it used lazzi ( bit of rehearsed stunts or phrases ) these were slotted into convenient points. Commedia dell’Arte provided comedy, entertainment and much much more.

The commedia dell'Arte was a highly disciplined art requiring both virtuosity and a strong sense of ensemble playing. The unique talent of commedia players was to improvise comedy around a pre– established scenario. Responding to each other, or to audience reaction, the actors made use of the lazzi (special rehearsed routines that could be inserted into the plays at convenient points to heighten the comedy), musical numbers, and certain dialogues to vary the happenings on stage.

Some of the better Commedia troupes performed in Renaissance theatres such as Palladio's theatre in Vicenza or the Petit Bourbon in France. Most Commedia troupes performed outdoors in city and town piazzas on stages they brought with them in horse-drawn carts, along with their equipment, props, costumes, curtains, and ladders. The stages were usually built high (up to 2 meters), allowing spectators an unobstructed view of the action, and giving actors a storage area and change room underneath.

The characters were stock characters meaning they were typical characters. Each character had a certain costume and mask and certain characteristics. There were load of characters here are a few: Arlecchino Brighella Pantalone Lovers ll Capitano ll Dottore Columbina zanni

The longer the nose the funnier Z a n n i ' s c o s t u m e u s u a l l y c o n s i s t s o f a b a g g y w h i t e j u m p s u i t o r s h i r t - a n d - p a n t s o u t f i t, s i n c e h e i s t o o p o o r t o a f f o r d a n y t h i n g e l s e. H i s m a s k h a s a w r i n k l e d f o r e h e a d w i t h l o w e y e b r o w s, g i v i n g h i m a s t u p i d a p p e a r a n c e. H e a l s o h a s a v e r y b i g, w i d e n o s e w i t h n o s e h a i r. Z a n n i ' s m o v e m e n t s a r e v e r y b i g, b r o a d, a n d e x a g g e r a t e d. W h i l e s l e e p i n g, Z a n n i m a k e s l o t s o f n o i s e s n o r i n g, b e l c h i n g, s n o r t i n g, a n d f a r t i n g.

Pantalone is a rich, old, lecherous man whose whole reason for being is money and losing his money would make him drop in status, something that he fears more than anything. His servants, the Zanni, are working for him day and night. Pantalone will offer money to get whatever he wants. He will not, however, pay for anything, insisting that he's already paid. Mr. Burns from "The Simpsons" walks in extremely similar manner

Arlecchino is the head zanni but is still only a servant. Much of the humour comes from his plans and schemes. The character is a lot like a cat and this is portrayed through his mask. The features of the mask show many cat-like qualities as do the actions of the character. Arlecchino is also led by his nose, meaning that his head turns first and then the rest of the body follows after.

The lovers were the only characters that were not masked as their beauty was natural, applied only with makeup. They are deeply in love but never touch or get to close as thought something bad would happen if they did. The lovers bring the soap opera into the scenarios.

Costumes The audience was able to pick up from each character's dress the type of person he was representing. For elaboration, loose– fitting garments alternated with very tight, and jarring colour contrasts opposed monochrome outfits. Except for the inamorato, males would identify themselves with character-specific costumes and half masks. The zanni (precursor to clown) Arlecchino, for example, would be immediately recognizable because of his black mask and patchwork costume.

Masks were used in Commedia dell Arte to firstly help identify the characters. As Commedia was performed by different travelling companies, this meant that they each would have different costumes, yet the masks would retain much of the information that was needed to know who was who. The second purpose of the mask was to limit the view of the actors, making them snake their head from side to side to see what was going on. The characters all had characteristics that governed the way they moved and this would directly affect the way they did things on the stage.

I hope you have enjoyed today’s show