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the-nosy-neighbor · 4 months ago

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Pedrolino and Commedia dell'arte

Pedrolino and Commedia dell’arte (Part 1)

So, I thought I’d posted about this before, but I can’t find it anywhere. I actually have some knowledge in this subject, so it was something I feel like I wrote about, but maybe didn’t share or put in a place I could actually find it. Stop me if you’ve heard this one, basically. Anyway, maybe I’m not into Sally because we are the same. I was, and kinda still am, super into this obscure period of theatre history

In “Happy Haunting to Boo and Yours” (which I will be calling HH for brevity and my sanity), a big deal is made about Sally dressing as Pedrolino. Like a massive big deal:

Sally goes around calling people uncultured oafs for not knowing her costume’s origin

The narrator tries to lecture about Pedrolino and commedia dell’arte but gets interrupted and you were all saved, but I was just getting started

Eddie shows he knows who Sally’s costume is of, and he gets belittled anyway “even the mailman gets it.” Also, Eddie was reading about it for fun when the mail room was slow. Eddie gets me

So, there is a very obvious focus on this symbol as important. Pedrolino is one of history’s most famous characters, and I am going to tell you why.

Commedia dell’arte (just commedia from this point on) is a somewhat obscure, but highly influential part of theatre history that originated in Italy around the 1600’s. Italy has always been pretty rich with theatre history. Commedia was performed by a roving group of players, who would tour around the country. Funnily enough, acting has been a profession greatly enjoyed by many people and yet actors have almost always been viewed with derision and as criminal types, and I imagine this roaming didn’t do much for these players’ reputations.

Commedia is a highly structured form of improvisation. Each actor in the troupe is assigned a character to play (not that they couldn’t swap things around) with a very specific set of movements, dress and personality. The audience knew about these characters as well, so it was a shared language as to what to expect from these players based on archetypes. For a modern equivalent, say a show comes to your town and you see a beefy character in a cape and tights. We have all been raised with the knowledge that makes it easy to identify a superhero when we see one (and to be vulnerable to the subversion of this character.) In the same way, the audience would recognize these characters, listed below:

Innamorati—(The lovers) The ingenue is the love interest, always high-born, young, and attractive. They would have called them “the lovers” or similar, but the modern term would be an ingenue. These are highly coveted roles, and in this sense were straight actors playing a serious-ish love story, while chaos happens around them. Modern understanding of any role like this is that it is good for your career, but kind of boring. Male and female versions of this role are standard.

(There are more variations in these characters below, but these are the main ones)

Masters

Il dottore—(The doctor) The doctor is a high-minded, intelligent individual who has a lot of book learning, but zero street smarts. Think chemistry professor,at least in behavior. The doctor wears robes that indicate his station, so scholar’s robes and hat. The doctor’s general movement betray his personality. The doctor would have his focus on the heavens, so would often be looking up and not directly at those around him. An older man, he is often an obstacle to the lovers.

Pantalone—(It means pants?) Pantalone is also an old man, and also an obstacle. Pantalone’s thing is money. He’s a rich old man who covets the female lead, and is often the intended spouse of the young woman. The young woman is never into him, this would be an arranged kind of thing. Pantalone is a natural cuckhold, and somewhat a commentary on the practices of women to be bartered for like property, with common wisdom suggesting that you can buy a woman, but you can’t make her like you. Pantolone would be dressed richly (and like new money, not classy). All of his movement is focused around the groin, hunched protectively around his…money pouch (and that other thing, as he is motivated by baser instincts.

Il Capitano—The Solider/Captain. The soldier is a boastful and vain man, who thinks he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread (If you are into Shakespeare, think Benedict from Much Ado About Nothing but not the lead). The Soldier is high ranking, in his military suit and movements are focused on being still and stern. He often is bragging about military exploits and romantic conquests, but nobody is listening to him.

Pedrolino and Commedia dell’arte

Zannies

Arlecchino—(Harlequin) Arlecchino is the role to have. He is a servant to a great man, generally the male ingenue, and works for his master very much like Puss in Boots does in the stories. He is loyal to his master, but is also a trickster, so is known to give him a ribbing as well. Prone to bouts of acrobatics, Arlecchino is light on his feet and quick with his movement and his wit. Arlechinno is probably the most famous commedia character, and would essentially be considered either the lead or the narrator, depending on framing. He was often paired as a love interest with the head female servant, Columbina.

Pedrolino/Pierrot—(little peter? Is that a dick joke?) Anyway, Pedrolino was often another servant on a similar level to Arlecchino. Sometimes they were set up as rivals, or they could also be set up as conspirators against their awful masters. Pedrolino could be a servant of the captain, the doctor, or Pantalone, but would often be working against their interests. Pedrolino was sometimes a rival for the heart of Columbina.

This is Pedrolino’s costume closer to the original time period, but most identify Pedrolino from a later period, as this costume (which is Sally’s costume).

This Pedrolino is sometimes more associated with Pierrot, which is a French version of the character, famously used in a photoshoot with David Bowie for his song, “Ashes to Ashes “(famously for me, I am obsessive about him anyway).

Columbina—(Little dove) Columbina is a female servant, who works for the female lover. She is heavily involved with the plotting and scheming to get the lovers together, though is less playful than her male counterparts. She was a love interest for Arlecchino and Pedrolino. (more another Shakespeare equivalent, Maria from Twelfth Night)

Scenarios

Everyone had their character, so the story would be set. Generally, it was understood to be like an comedy of the time period. You had two kids in love, they were being kept apart my horrible old men, and their funny servants work to get them together and stick it to the man. It was a version of improv, but they had scenarios to guide them in specifics. So, if you were in a troupe, from the list of known scenarios, which would be mixed and matched to be a full story. I say listed, but I doubt this was written but more memorized.

An example of a scenario: “In the enchanting city of Genoa, Cinthio's sister, Isabella, finds herself entangled in a web of promises and broken dreams as she embarks on a journey to Rome in pursuit of her unfaithful suitor, the Captain, only to discover a surprising twist of fate that leads her to a different path of love and fulfillment, much to her brother's delight.”

If you’ve watched Who’s Line is it Anyway, you will be familiar with how improv scenes tend to work. The prompt might be new, but they do rely on cues from each other to work towards a successful bit. In commedia, these are called “lazzi” and are essentially the same thing. I know when to help you set something up when I see you perform an action. Example, Arlecchino pours a glass of wine, the lazzi is “Startled, Arlecchino, holding a full glass of wine, executes a complete backward somersault without spilling the wine.”

Commedia is fascinating to a lot of people, probably mostly performers or theatre practitioners, because the archetypes, scenarios, and lazzi can be seen throughout the history of performance. Vaudeville, in particular, seems to be a pretty much direct line of gags throughout history. If you are familiar with the Marx Brothers, they perform bits that can be found in scholarship on commedia.

For example this scenario: Arlecchino and Pedrolino come face-to-face, armed and ready for a confrontation. They exchange insults and rely on others to physically hold them back. Eventually, when the Captain tries to separate them, they start striking each other, with the Captain receiving most of the blows.

The Marx Brothers: https://www.google.com/search?q=marx+brothers+fighting+each+other+and+end+up+fighting+someone+else&rlz=1C1GCEB_enUS1045US1045&oq=marx+brothers+fighting+each+other+and+end+up+fighting+someone+else&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDkyOTNqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b909fae3,vid:q9OUIk4Oaq4,st:0

This example from Duck Soup shows two of the brothers (who play essentially Zannis in each production) work together to frustrate a lemonade vendor and to make off with his cart. Not 1 to 1, but very similar energy, and very typical of a zanni interaction in commedia. I wrote an entire paper on the lineage of Marx Brothers gags from commedia to Vaudeville.

Interestingly, Groucho generally plays, what feels to me, like a mix of The Doctor and Arlecchino.

This is already paper length, so I will spare you more detail on commedia. However, if you are interested, I would encourage you to look into it, as the information about this type of performance is very good and seems to have appealed to humans for centuries.

Next post, I will cover Sally’s costume and the specific reference to Pedrolino.

#welcome home #welcome home arg #sally starlet #happy haunting #commedia dell'arte

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