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"GLI ABITANTI DI ARLECCHINIA"
(THE INHABITANTS OF ARLECCHINIA)
Conference-Show on the characters of the Commedia dell'Arte.
 
   
by and with Claudia Contin
artistical advice Ferruccio Merisi
 
Zanni, Pantalone, Balanzone, Brighella, il Capitano, Smeraldina, Pulcinella, l'Amoroso eand l'Amorosa: these, as well as their "king" Arlecchino (Harlequin), are the most famous among the characters of that bewildered, "upside down city" called Commedia dell'Arte. Claudia Contin introduces us to what is left, or what we have been able to reconstruct, of that incredible heritage of gestural expressiveness and the actor's physical work. This is done in a comic and at the same time precise presentation of the most important stock comic characters of the Italian tradition. We are faced with a rich fund of materials, most of which are reinvented and recodified with craftsmanlike exactitude, with the help of various iconographic finds from past centuries. In this spoken and acted bedlam, which we could also call rhythmically stressed, by the "dance" of the characters, we can meet the history and the life of the various characters: a sharp, overly wise old man who is also a tragicomic poet, a boorish, nosey servant with a disarming and undying ingenuousness, a rambling and "genuinely" rude charlatan doctor, a young amorous nobleman wavering between his passions and his "indescribable" etiquette, a go-getting and twittering young maid with her generous, childish but licentious freshness, a lazy optimist, a Neapolitan shaman, who lives on air, music and Tarantella, and, naturally, a rebellious elf and very lively, popular jester who "improvises" his devilish dance at the head of the many-hued "upside down city". Every verbal attribute that can be applied to a "character" is narrated with philological competence and at the same time "worn" by the actor's body within a conference-show in which hearing and seeing, getting to know, and enjoying oneself become a unified whole for the spectator.

 We are provided with a journey among the secrets of the actor's work and at the same time a "reconnaissance" into the "drawings" of the bodies, among the gestures and the intentions of the main characters of the classic Commedia dell'Arte: each character a physical mask, each "mask" a series of postures and movements, of rhythms and behaviours, in other words a special contraction and dilation of the body until it becomes the visible expression of a certain basic psychological "diagram". Carried out with precision and an abundance of historical and iconographic information, this demonstration-show is a moment of "light" and yet deep cultural and anthropological acquisition. Indeed, not only can you acquire the amusing knowledge of the different morphologies and languages typical of the various characters, you can also find a reflection upon the language of behaviour and its strange and mysterious archetypes, upon the mutual games of the characters and the roles. It is a journey in which you can perceive the sense of a relevant theatrical anthropology, with more than one connection to the great traditions of Oriental Theatre and in general with the intercultural dimensions of the actor.

Recommended audience:
 For everybody. It can inaugurate programmes and events on the
 Commedia dell'Arte or it can be dedicated to an evening audience
 as a special event. It has also often been successfully performed
 for the students of secondary schools.

Technical requirements:
Minimum stage size m 6 x 4 (depth)
Framing complete, black or neutral masking
A small table on which to put the masks
Lighting load  6 kw.
2 BC holders or GES (not necessary in presence
of well positioned lighting bars)
6 1000 w lanterns, 2 pars, 6-channel mixer, Cables, 3 splitters
Amplification  min. 150 w, with a CD player, speakers at the end
of the stage and mixer on the opposite side at the rear of the stalls
A heated dressing room with close facilities.
Rigging time  2 hours, De-rigging time  1 hour		  

 

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