Introduction

Commedia dell’arte is the main theme of this topic. It is a type of improvised comedy that was popular in the 15th-16th century. Commedia is done in mask and in reporto style. These masks are given for each different character and part of there character is shown through the features of the mask. In Commedia, there are a set of stock type characters each with different personalitys, stances, goals, and status.

Our group consists of

• Sam McCredie
• Caleb Gallant
• Finn Beachly
• Tim Barrett
• Leith Honor
• Oscar Clarkson

Status

A Very important part of Commedia dell’arte is the status of each characters. This is important as a lot of Commedia’s comedy comes out through conflictions between characters of different statuses.

For example, Brighella is a servant (zanni) to one of the masters (Pantalone or Il Dottore) but is in charge of the other zanni. Brighella is very rat or gorilla-like and can be seen as aggressive and menacing to other zanni but very attentive and willing towards the masters. This can create humour through Brighella trying to be polite to a master while being angry at a zanni for doing something wrong.

Lazzi

Lazzi are also a very common way of humour in Commedia dell’arte. Lazzi is usually done by a zanni, where the character performs an action which is seen as obviously comedic, similar to slapstick, and is commonly formed from some kind of accident. For example Brighella tries to hit Arlecchino, but he dodges and Brighella falls into the wedding cake.