Commedia Dell'Arte
Commedia Dell'Arte (direct translation: "comedy of art" ) is an Early form of Theatre originating in Italy. It flourished in the 16th-18th centuries mainly in Europe, It was most popular (after Italy) in France where it was named Comédie-Italienne. In England parts of the idea were adopted and naturalised into the harlequinade in pantomime and in the Punch-and-Judy show, a puppet play involving the commedia dell'arte character Punch.
Commedia dell'arte focuses on the art of improvisation and stock characters and masks. Actors would heavily emphasise their movements to obviously convey which stock character they were playing. They would have to adapt their dialogue and actions according to a few basic plots which normally consisted of love intrigues and topic issues. These plots frequently borrowed from the classical literary tradition of the commedia erudita, or literary drama. However, this was a problem as the commedia erudita was in Latin, or in an Italian not easily comprehensible to the general public. Therefore no one could understand the dialogue. To get around this, actors would use plenty of comic action and exaggeration or parody of regional or stock fictional types in order to make it easily understandable. Commedia Dell'Arte is really a product of the Actors who have over time all added a part of themselves into one type of theatre.
Zanni:
Zanni is the lowest class stock character of them all. The peasant or migrant worker who worked in the Venetian society as a servant, valet or porter. Zanni were meant to reflect the role of Bergamo peasants who were facing famine in the rural areas they tended to live in due to cheaper imports from Greece (this took place in the early 1400s). They were forced into urban cities such as Venice where they offered themselves for any work they could get which would often be unpleasant and under paid jobs.
Common Attributes:
In their favour, they were famous for their nimbleness and agility on the positive side and on the other side - their crudeness. They were not seen as educated and therefore they did not talk much but rather communicated using 'grommelot'. They would move around oddly for example, feet pointed outwards, bent knees in a crouched position, legs wide apart and walking leading with their nose.
Zanni would wear full face masks with a long nose. However later on these developed into upper half of the face only, with an extended, long nose. The longer the nose on the character the stupider they are. The costume of Zanni reinforced the audience of the nature of the character. Usually dressed in sacking and hunched over through carrying heavy loads in their job. The way a Zanni would carry themselves is a stark contrast to the aristocracy characters. Lastly Zanni were highly animated characters always flailing their arms in the air and reacting loudly with erratic body movements. They were constantly ravenously hungry (which came from the famine in their home towns) but their coarseness also introduced mirth into the theatre with farting, burping and resounding snoring! All of these traits formed a basis of an important character in Commedia Dell'Arte.
Pantalone:
Pantalone is another crucial stock character in the world of commedia: He is played as a grumpy old merchant, often upper class and can therefore speak properly (in a musical Venetian dialect). Pantalone is known for being a lech and obsessed with a young mischievous maid called 'Colombina'.
Common Attributes:
Pantalone's mask highlights his physical features including a hooked nose and prominent eyebrows. He would walk around hunched over leading by his nose and kicking his legs out with each step forward. His hands would be protecting a pouch of gold which hangs around his waist. Pantalone is known for his love of gold and selfishness. Often the audience would dislike Pantalone so when he would shout out Zanni and Pantalone ends up hurt the audience cheers.
Il Dottore (The Doctor):
Il Dottore is portrayed as a fat comical man who claims to be a professional in his field, normally a doctor and is other times depicted as a learned physician, a notary or a lawyer. lastly, Il Dottore is supposed to be the personification of knowledge and education, it is an insult towards the education system which people found funny when the actors were touring!
Common Attributes:
Il Dottore is usually dressed in the style of a medieval doctor, with a huge black suit, often with a ruff and a notary's beret or large doctor's cap. He wears a mask over half of his face that highlights his bulbous nose. When he walks he leads with his belly and is often smug and eating. The Doctor would walk around with his knees bent, feet pointing forward, bum out and down in a 70 degree squat, a large belly causing him to walk slowly and bumble. The doctor will often face the audience and grumble about something he pretends to know about slipping in a few long words to make him sound smart.
Arlecchino (Harlequin):
Arlecchino is a relatively young character in the comedy, having first appeared in the Commedia dell'Arte as early as 1593. Normally, Arlecchino plays the part of a devoted valet or servant, but he also plays the clown, with the acrobat offering a tonne of comic relief! There's always a lot of laughing when he walks onto the stage because of his ridiculous statements and acts, which alternate between moments of genius and simple stupidity. You never know which will show up at any given time! All of this is layered with charm and wit and a dash of self-interest.
The Arlecchino usually wore a colourful jacket, with random patches all over, and matching trousers. On his head is a white felt hat with a rabbit or fox tail. He would carry around a wooden spatula which would be used for slap stick moments. This would be used in cases when the arlecchino would stir polenta or slap another person, food or items belonging to others.
The Lovers (Flavia & Isabella):
Flavio and Isabella are the only unmasked characters and they are both accentuated characters. They are madly in love with each other but they never actually get to be together as every time they get close it is almost too much for them and they fail. Furthermore, Isabella is Pantalone's daughter who wants to marry her off to someone reputable and rich like El Capitano or Il Dottore!
They walk around leading with the back of their hands which are pointed held either side of them as they walk. They move around on their tip toes. Flavio will ever so often put the back of his hand against his forehead and sigh. Isabella holds a fan in her hand and will stop to fan herself every once in a while. On top of this, she is very vain and will stop to stare at herself in any reflective surface near her.
Colombina:
Colombina is a smaller character in Commedia, she is usually cast as a mischievous maid who is close with Arlecchino (sometimes friends sometimes lovers). Her costume consisted of a maids dress and maybe a colourful patch here of there like Arlecchino.
Colombina is too vain so her mask only really covers her eyes as to not conceal too much of her beauty. She is often played as Pantalone's love interest/ who he creeps on...
Brighella:
In Commedia Dell'Arte Brighella is cast as a cunning servant who comes under the 'Zanni' category. He is (sometimes) known for being an expert musician, singer and guitarist. On top of this he is known for the many pranks he tends to pull on other characters. This meddling, greedy, sharp servant is also brute who is ready to satisfy any and all desires of his master - even the most evil without remorse.
His costume is simple, that of a servant, but usually with several short green stripes on a white background on both his shirt and trousers.
What is a Lazzi?
A Lazzi is essentially a 'gag' which is normally unrelated to the plot, it can be moments of slap stick or physical theatre which usually aims to make the audience laugh. For example Zanni has a famous Lazzi where he would come on to stage at some of the most random and unusual times and eat a bag of cherries. This usually goes wrong and Zanni ends of spilling all the cherries or choking on a pip.
Felix, T. (2019). Lazzi - La Commedia dell'Arte. [online] Google.com. Available at: https://sites.google.com/site/italiancommedia/lazzi.
Italy Mask (2013). Description of Commedia dell'Arte characters. [online] Italymask.co.nz. Available at: https://www.italymask.co.nz/About+Masks/Commedia+dellArte+Characters.html.