New Delhi, Sep 15 (Inditop.com) A leading Italian theatre ensemble will reinterpret William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”, “Romeo and Juliet” and “Othello” in the ancient theatrical tradition of Commedia dell’Arte (comedy of art) here at the India Habitat Centre Sep 27.
The play, “Mori a Venezia”, to be staged by Italian troupe “Il Carro dei Comici” and directed by Carlo Boso, will feature a comic love story inspired by the three plays.
Boso, a leading Commedia practitioner, is known to have contributed to the re-discovery and the spread of Commedia dell’Arte over the last two decades.
“The play will unfold with Jessica, daughter of Shylock, who falls in love with the pirate Sinbad, enraging her father. Antonio, a poor fisherman migrates to Venice in search of fortune and falls in love with Benilde, a noble mistress, who was courted by Shylock. Antonio takes loans from Shylock to obtain her favour and to make a fortune in America. Baldassarre and Pedrolino, servants of Antonio and Shylock respectively, help them realise their plans,” Maria Paola Benedetti, a member of the cast, told Inditop in an e-mail from Pesaro, a town on the Adriatic coast in Italy.
The play, Benedetti said, will weave all three stories together.
“Our troupe, Il Carro dei Comici, uses techniques of expression, characteristic of the ancient Commedia dell’Arte, in which the actors improvise, sing, dance, perform and fight against the traditional masks of the Italian mainstream theatre,” the actress said.
The play was nominated to the “Festival Internacional del Arte de la Comedia” of Alkalᠤe Henares in Spain, “International Festival of Gorzow Wlkp” in Poland and to the “Tehran International Ritual – Traditional Theatre Festival” in Iran.
The ancient Commedia dell’Arte, a form of free and improvised comedy, flourished in Italy during the Renaissance period in the 16th century. It dates back to the Roman empire.
“Commedia dell’Arte was performed outdoors at temporary venues by professional actors who were costumed and masked. By the mid-1500s, specific troupes of commedia performers began to group together and by 1568, the Gelosi became a distinct company, with the logo of the two-headed Janus. The Gelosi performed in northern Italy, eschewed patronage and pursued autonomy. The Gelosi performed with a cast of ‘usual ten’ that included ‘two vecchi (old men), four innamorati (two male and two female lovers), two zanni (servants), a captain and a servetta (serving maid),” the Italian actress said.
The genre, Benedetti said, was associated with the evolution of the “free theatre movement in Italy and women’s empowerment”.
“Commedia dell’Arte was notable in that female roles were played by women, documented as early as the 1560s. In the 1570s, English theatre critics denigrated the Commedia troupes with their female actors. Ben Johnson referred to one female performer of the Commedia as a ‘tumbling whore’. By the end of the 1570s, Italian prelates attempted to ban female performers. However, women remained on Italian stage,” she said.
Conventional plots were woven around themes of adultery, jealousy, old age and love, Benedetti added.
Commedia as a genre has received “a great deal of attention from several legendary 20th century theatre artists including Jacques Copeau, Vsevolod Meyerhold and Jacques Lecoq because they wanted to move away from naturalism”, the actress said.
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