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How does this tradition relates to Accidental death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo?
Tell me a bit more about the types of commedia del arte and how each type can be liked a character in the play.

2007-03-19 16:40:15 · 1 answers · asked by angelle 1 in Arts & Humanities Performing Arts

1 answers

Dario Fo has taken much inspiration from la "Commedia dell'Arte" by incorporating it with political issues, thus producing Political theatre.
Dario Fo produced plays based on improvisation about contemporary issues with lots of revisions. He wrote " La Morte Accidentale di un Anarchico" (Accidental Death of an Anarchist)in 1970 and he was criticizing the abuse of forces of law and order; after a terrorist attack on the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Milan.

Commedia dell'arte (Italian: "play of professional artists" also interpreted as "comedy of humors"), also known as Extemporal Comedy, was a popular form of improvisational theater which began in Italy in the 15th century (1400s) and maintained its popularity through to the 18th century (1700s), although it is still performed today. All of their performances were outside with few props, unscripted and were free to watch, funded by donations. In a troupe there were 10 people: 7 men and 3 women. Outside Italy, it was also known as "Italian Comedy".

The performances were improvised around a repertory of stock conventional situations: adultery, jealousy, old age, love, some of which can be traced in the Roman comedies of Plautus and Terence, which are themselves translations of lost Greek comedies of the fourth century BCE. These characters included the ancestors of the modern clown. The dialogue and action could easily be made topical and adjusted to satirize local scandals, current events, or regional tastes, mixed with ancient jokes and punchlines. Characters were identified by costume, masks, and even props, such as the slapstick. Lazzi and Conchetti are also used.

The classic, traditional plot is that the innamorati are in love and wish to be married, but one vecchio (elder) or several elders, vecchi, are preventing this from happening, and so they must ask one or more zanni for help. Typically it ends happily with the marriage of the innamorati and forgiveness all around for any wrongdoings. There are countless variations on this story, as well as many that diverge completely from the structure, such as a well-known story about Arlecchino becoming mysteriously pregnant, or the Punch and Judy scenario.

STYLE
Travelling teams of players would set up an outdoor stage and provide amusement in the form of juggling, acrobatics, and, more typically, humorous semi-improvised plays based on a repertoire of established characters and a rough storyline. Troupes would occasionally perform directly from the back of their traveling wagon, but this is more typical of Carro di Tespi, a kind of travelling theatre that can be traced back to antiquity.

THE CHARACTERS
Characters were portrayed by actors wearing masks, although the innamorati (or lovers) did not wear masks. Like their English contemporaries (Shakespeare), the Italians dressed male actors en travesti -- in women's clothing and wigs. Unlike the boy players of English renaissance theatre this was for humorous purposes, rather than as a result of social constraints. In some cases, the characters were also traditionally considered as respectively representing some Italian regions or main towns. Often they are still now symbolic of the related town.

CHARACTER LIST
Here follows a list of the major Italian characters, with other English or French names, or descendant characters in parentheses, and the towns/regions with which they became associated:
Arlecchino (Harlequin, Truffaldino), a servant, one of the zanni. He is a poor peasant who has left his native Bergamo to seek his fortune in the city of Venice. He is illiterate, a fact that often causes amusement when a message arrives and Arlecchino pretends to read it. He is an acrobat and a clown, and carries a baton which he sometimes uses to bash other characters for comedic relief, leading to the modern term slapstick. He has several "masters," but his primary (if covert) interest is for himself. The famous Harlequin costume with its lozenge pattern of red, green, and blue diamonds originated in a stylised representation of patchworked clothing that was illustrative of Arlecchino's poor status, as well as his resourcefulness. There are three types of Harlequin mask: the cat, the pig and the monkey (some say the bull too). The traditional Arlecchino mask is speckled with wart-like blemishes. The lozenge costume gave his name to a fashion motif, the mask to a shape for eyeglass frames: see Harlequin. Oddly enough, Arlecchino was originally created by the French, and later adapted by the Italians.
Brighella (Figaro, Scapino, Mezzetino), a fat slow hungry character, a friend of Harliquino was always being made the joke of and the last one to get it; a simpelton often told not to do something but his hunger or desires get the better of him or her.
Columbina (Columbine, Harlequine, Pierrette), is maidservant to the Innamorata and lover of Arlecchino. She is usually involved in intrigue and is rather intelligent. She is associated with Venice.
Il Capitano (the Captain) is a cheap he-man soldier, but a coward underneath. He is often one of the vecchi.
Il Dottore (the Doctor, usually called Dottore Balanzone or Dottore Graziano), is a local aristocrat, who went all the way to Bologna to read for his degree. He is extremely rich, with "old" money and is one of the vecchi. He adores food and good wines, thus he is a little round (fat).
Innamorata (the Lover) is the leading woman. She wore no mask (see innamorati).
Innamorato (the Lover) is the leading man. He wore no mask (see innamorati).
Pantalone (Pantaloon, Cassandro, Cassandrino, Facanappa) is a rich and miserly merchant who is frequently the father of one of the innamorati, and is one of the vecchi. He also employs Arlecchino and treats him cruelly. He is associated with Venice.
Pedrolino (or Pierino, most commonly nowadays known as Pierrot, also Burrattino, Bertoldo), is a mild-mannered zanni. He tends to be so kindly that other characters blame him for things he never did, and he agrees that it was all his fault.
Pulcinella is a hunchback who still chases women, and is one of the zanni. He was the model for Punch in the English puppet theatre Punch and Judy. He is associated with Naples.
La Ruffiana (Old Woman) is usually a mother or gossipy townswoman who intrudes into the lives of the Lovers.
Scaramuccia (see also Scaramouche) is a roguish adventurer and swordsman who replaced Il Capitano in later troupes. He is the servant to another character. He wears a black velvet mask and black trousers, shirt and hat.
Zanni is a threadbare old servant from Bergamo
The influence of commedia
The commedia dell'arte, with its stock situations, stock characters and improvised dialogue influenced many other forms of drama, including pantomime and Punch and Judy.

Quite notably, many if not the majority of comic plays from roughly the 15th-18th centuries have clear influences from the commedia dell'arte, including spinoffs from the traditional characters. Some examples include Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, in which Bianca and Lucentio as innamorati "beguile the old pantaloon", and Katherina and Petruchio enact a Punch and Judy plot; Beaumarchais' Le Barbier de Séville, which features a traditional plot, innamorati (The Count and Rosine) the zanni Brighella (Figaro) and the vecchio Dottore (Doctor Bartholo); and Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, with Roxanne as innamorata and Cyrano as Il Capitano/innamorato.

Molière was strongly influenced by commedia, as he had come in contact with travelling Italian actors in the provinces and worked alongside a troupe in Paris for two years. Harpagon in The Miser (1668) was modeled on Pantalone, and there are many other stock characters in Élise, Frosine, Valère, and La Flèche. The playwright was also a lead actor, and performed in the comedic style, with a love for physical humor.

Aspects of commedia dell'arte also passed into the silent tradition of mime. The Bohemian actor Jean-Gaspard Deburau (1769 -1864) brought the new forms of mime to Paris in the 1830s. He standardized the French image of Pierrot.

Stravinsky wrote music for a ballet entitled Pulcinella, regarded as the first of his neo-classical period.

Pierrot Lunaire, the famous and ground-breaking song-cycle by Arnold Schoenberg, draws extensively from commedia dell'arte, or at least, the poems do, originally by Albert Giraud.

Ruggiero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci draws heavily on commedia dell'arte characters and situations.

Richard Strauss used several of the characters in his opera Ariadne auf Naxos.

The characters and tropes of the commedia have also been used in novels, notably Scaramouche, the 1921 historical novel by Rafael Sabatini, but also in more recent sword and sorcery and literary works, such as Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius stories and Midori Snyder award-winning novel The Innamorati.

The rock band, Queen, often drew on the themes and imagery of commedia dell'arte, most notably in "Bohemian Rhapsody", the video for "It's a Hard Life" (the intro the song itself is based on the aria "Vesti la giubba" from Pagliacci!), and the cover of the album Innuendo.

Agatha Christie's Harley Quin is a mystical, detective-like character. The characters of the commedia feature prominently in "Harlequin's Lane", the final episode of Christie's series of short stories featuring Quin. A similarly-named character is part of the DC Comics Batman universe, but apart from her costume there is no direct reference to the forms of the commedia.

The current NBC drama Studio 60 contains references to a recurring comedy skit involving commedia dell'arte, and there was some confusion at one point as to Moliere's relationship to the style.

COMMEDIA TODAY
Commedia dell'arte has experienced periods of dormancy and revival since its inception. Commedia had all but disappeared when it was revived by Giorgio Strehler at the Piccolo Teatro of Milan.

Current American commedia dell'arte troupes include The Dell'Arte School in Blue Lake, Tutti Frutti in San Francisco and i Sebastiani in New England.

In England, the Ophaboom Theatre Company specializes in work rooted in commedia dell'arte traditions, updated for modern audiences. The troupe has performed (in several languages) throughout the British Isles and across Europe since 1991.

In Paris Carlo Boso, a former actor of Giorgio Strehler and his Piccolo Teatro, keeps the tradition of the Commedia dell'Arte alive in directing classical commedia plays as well as improvised stories with his company "Le Mystère Bouffe".

In Rome Marco Luly, with his company Luoghi dell' Arte (www.luoghidellarte.com), keeps the spirit of commedia alive, travelling the world with his shows and workshops.

In Vienna Markus Kupferblum, an Austrian theatre and opera director and founder of the Company "Totales Theater", introduces the rules and the structure of the Commedia dell'Arte plays as well as the hierarchy of its characters into contemporary theatre and opera.

2007-03-20 05:02:17 · answer #1 · answered by martox45 7 · 2 0

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