Commedia
dell’arte
Italian Renaissance Theatre
1400 - 1600
Commedia dell’arte
Influences
Trace back to early Roman street theatre
– Public performances
– Partially improvised
– Troupes settled in cities, but moved locations within the
city
Roman playwrights: Terence & Platus
– “borrowed” story-lines from the Classics
Commedia dell’arte
Terms to know
• Commedia dell’arte
- “play of professionals”
• Scenario
- Standard plot outline
• Intermezzi
- short “in-between” shows
• Lazzi
- bits of comic business
• Stock characters
- characters who remain the same in many different plays
Commedia dell’arte
Conventions
Stages
– Sometimes performed on the street or in a public square
with no set
– Also performed in theatres or music halls with wide
variety of set
– Helped develop the PROSCENIUM
ARCH (picture frame) theatre style
that is still the standard today
Karel Dujardins , 1657
Commedia dell’arte
Conventions
Scenarios
Most performances, the performers would agree
on a basic scenario, the characters involved
and the eventual outcome… everything else
was left as improvisational material.
Sample Scenarios:
A - Pantalone enlists Arlecchino's help in getting
a date with Lavinia, who doesn't know he
exists. Arlecchino gives him a lot of bad
advice about his clothes and how to act.
B - Alessandra tries to get her father
Pantalone's permission to marry Fabian.
Commedia dell’arte
Conventions
Set
SET – no standard set was used… playing space could be a plain
street, a pageant wagon, a ballroom or dining hall
Commedia dell’arte
Conventions
PROPS
• The battacchio (called a “slap stick” in English) a club-like
•
object composed of two wooden slats produces a loud smacking noise,
though little force is transferred from the object to the person being
struck. Actors may thus hit one another repeatedly with great audible
effect while causing very little actual physical damage. Typically carried
by Brighella
– The origin of the modern term “slapstick comedy” comes from this
Italian device (think Charlie Chaplin, the 3 Stooges)
Characters carried other misc. props befitting their occupation & station
– Many characters had signature props. For eg: female lovers carried fans,
male lovers carried handkerchiefs & a posy
Commedia dell’arte
Conventions
Costumes & Masks
• Actors wore stylized versions of modern
clothing
• stylized theatrical costumes can exaggerate
some aspect of a character
• Specific colors/patterns/cuts were used to
portray characters' age, gender role,
profession, social class, personality
• Each stock character had his/her own
“stock” costume & mask
Commedia dell’arte
Conventions
Actors (CALLED PERFORMERS)
– Skills needed: acrobats, dancers, musicians, singers, orators, quick
wits, politically savvy (satire)
– An actor often portrayed an individual character for so long that they
were known by the character’s name, not their own.
– WOMEN ALLOWED ON STAGE!!! Only place accepted until late
17th Century England
– Acting companies that stayed & traveled together, approx. 10-12
people
– I Gelosi – famous commedia acting company, all family: Francesco &
Isabella Andreini
Commedia dell’arte
Conventions – Stock Characters
Inamorati - The lovers
• RANK - The lovers are of high status in their own. They are the sons and
daughters of characters who are also high on the social ladder; very often
the female lover is Pantalone's daughter (when she is not his daughter, the
male lover is his son, and Pantalone lusts after her)
• NAMES - usually have beautiful, flowery, romantic names
• COSTUMES – they wore the latest Italian fashions.
• MASKS – Lovers do not wear masks. They wear heavy makeup.
• MOST COMMON LOVERS: (female) Donatella, Fabiana, Isabella, Ottavia;
(male) Benedetto, Fabian, Giancarlo, Ottaviano
Commedia dell’arte
Conventions – Stock Characters
The Innamorati
These characters never developed, but were necessary for the action of the plays
Commedia dell’arte
Conventions – Stock Characters
Vecchio (foolish elders)
– RANK: rich, old, high ranking but not always well-respected
– WHO: A category of aged, male characters. The primary members of
this group are Pantalone, Il Doctoro and Il Capitano. The word means
"old one" or simply "old" in Italian. They are overwhelmingly the
antagonists, opposing the love of the inamorati; the comic ending is
produced when the zanni manage to overcome them and unite the
lovers.
– MASKS: wore ½ masks with long noses, the longer the nose, the
dumber the person
– COSTUMES: dress to show wealth & look pretentious, often wear
layers
Commedia dell’arte
Il Dottore
Il Capitano
Pantalone
Vecchio – Masks & Costumes
Commedia dell’arte
Conventions – Stock Characters
Zanni (clever servants) = (Columbina Arllechino, Brighella)
– CHARACTER: (the name is where we get our word "zany") is a servant
character who serves one of the Vecchi. He never does well at his job,
since all he thinks about is food or sleep. Often, he is distracted while
on a mission, after hearing the name of a fruit--or after falling
asleep. Zanni is stupid, poor, and slow, and therefore is the lowest
character on the social scale.
– COSTUME: usually consists of a baggy white jumpsuit or shirt-andpants outfit, since he is too poor to afford anything else.
– MASK: has a wrinkled forehead with low eyebrows, giving him a
stupid appearance. He also has a very big, wide nose with nose
hair. The larger the nose, the stupider the Zanni.
– MOVEMENTS: are very big, broad, and exaggerated. He leads his
body with his head and nose (his nose sticks out way in front of the
rest of his body, and wherever his head goes, his body follows).
Commedia dell’arte
Zanni – the servants
Columbina
Arllechino
Brighella
Commedia dell’arte
Influences
Here are just some of the ways Commedia has
influenced the world since the Renaissance…
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English vocabulary: "pants" from Pantalone, "zany" from the Zanni, Harlequin
from Arlecchino.
“Romeo & Juliet” = a translation of Flaminio la Scala's collection of scenario
(published in 1611) (taken from the argument, or introduction to the play):
There lived in Florence two gentlemen called Pantalone and Gratiano. They were
of old and noble families, and bore a long hatred for each other ... (can you guess
what’s next?)
Moliere used stock characters in his plays.
Modern screenplays: follow common scenarios, use stock characters (teen films)
TV shows: scenarios & characters (“The Simpsons” and many others)