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Oct 28 - Nov 4, 2001 |
Unmasking 16th century Italian street theatre
The Gardiner Museum unveils multimedia tribute to Commedia dell'Arte titled Harlequin Unmasked
By Jennifer Febbraro
Originally Published: 2001-09-23
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Harlequin Unmasked at Gardiner Museum
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Having just recently attended Trailervision's first ever feature production at the "anti-premiere" of the mostly improvised, "Why Can't I Be a Movie Star," it's more than a little interesting to discover the origins of improvisation itself this month at the Gardiner Museum. To overstate the obvious -times have changed, and so has the nature of comedy itself.
Organized thematically under the title of "Harlequin Unmasked: Comedy Transformed," the Gardiner Museum showcases a multi-media tribute to the "Commedia dell'Arte," originally an improvised street theatre in Italy in the 16th century. In this theatre, each actor would develop a certain character, ones which have remained theatrical stereotypes throughout the centuries, among them, the captain, two old men (Pantaloon and the Doctor), and the Zanni (valet buffoons). Each had its own mask, so that eventually their roles were literally referred to as such.
Like modern improvisers, those in the Commedia dell'arte often used the cheapest of jokes to provoke laughter in its audiences, with a lot of business where one character would whip another for punishment, multiple episodes of slapstick, and a little sexual prying and prodding for good measure. The lovers were perhaps the most popular of all the Commedia dell'Arte's characters. Actors often took advantage of their freedom on the stage as a platform for testing the boundaries of more "taboo" social and political topics, such as the question of polygamy, child abuse, and the mocking of authority figures.
Along with some exquisite and rare masks of such characters as the promiscuous Columbine, the elderly Cuckold Pantalone and the mournful Pierrot, the exhibition will include a selection of masquerade costumes which curator Meredith Chilton tracked down in abandoned European castles. As she explains: "I travelled from the Cesky Krumlov castle in Bohemia, where a treasure trove of costumes made for the Schwarzenberg family were stored when the castle was abandoned by the family in the mid-19th century, to the Bucardo Library in Rome, where I found a costume worn by an Italian actor named 'Carlin,' one of the most famous Harlequins of all time."
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