A Brief History of Commedia

Commedia dell'Arte was born proper during the sixteenth century in Renaissance Italy. Commedia was the convergence of several performance traditions, including street theatre, circus arts, musical, and busking.

During this time, many things of Roman culture were back into fashion, including comedy plays such as those of Plautus and Terence. Some will say that certain commedia Masks can be traced back to Rome (or beyond) through a direct and unbroken lineage but this has never been proven. It is likely that many of the characters were influenced by revivals of Roman parts during the intervening centuries. Many of the Masks came directly out of the Italian Carnevale and much of its customs have some root in ancient Roman culture.

Acting troupes began to be come together and perform traditional plays as sponsored by the nobility and aristocracy. The elite would often join in the performances, taking a leading dramatic or tragic role and the professional actors would do the comic relief. The actors could then take these comedic skills to the common people who greatly enjoyed a good laugh - especially when it poked fun at their societal superiors.

In the crowded marketplace, every vendor would try to gain attention to sell his goods. Some would hire singers or dancers and then others would hire jugglers and acrobats. Eventually, some started hiring a few actors to do a short skit to help sell the product; sometimes this was done in entirely comedic jest, utilizing a "straight man" and a "stupid sidekick", a trait that would be present in most commedia plays (known as "first zanni" and "second zanni") and many later comedies.

When all of these came together in the middle of the sixteenth century, commedia came alive. The first troupes were performing in the market for merchants, presenting a full length show as people went to and from in the street. The stock characters were developed from Roman plays and Carnevale costumes. Sometimes one actor's own creation became quite popular and was copied by other troupes. Before the end of the century, commedia was famous across all of western Europe and troupes would travel to other countries and be hosted by royalty. Individual actors became some of the world's first international celebrities. As it crossed the English Channel, its influences were felt by William Shakespeare and many of his comedic actors and contemporaries.

One very notable contribution to theatre from commedia was the entrance of women as actors. Even while young boys played the female parts at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, women had been on stage for decades in Italy. No one knows who started it but it was probably an advertising gimmick - so scandalous and improper it was immediately popular and profitable and universally copied. Women playing female parts may have also introduced the first mask-less commedia characters. Before them, men would play masked female characters that were not feminine, female in name only and no different from their male counterparts. When women acted, their beauty was highlighted and they were given new characterizations. Certain female characters, especially in northern Italian troupes, were often more clever than any of the male roles. The reason is unknown but it's possible it helped attract crowds of women in the marketplace.

Commedia lived strong throughout the seventeenth and part of the eighteenth centuries. It survived changing laws in Italy that banned its performances. It evolved in France and, in the later centuries, can be said to be more of a French art than Italian. Many of its characters would be recreated as marionettes and other puppets, especially when regulations prohibited acting and vulgarity. The most well known in English of these is Punch from Punch and Judy, though the standard clown puppet even today is a descendant of commedia.

It survived in limited form in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It inspired many operas, especially in Italy and France, and numerous works of art including paintings and figurine sculptures. Arlecchino, the most famous character, continued on his own outside of commedia to become the English Harlequin, the sympathetic "tramp". Commedia also had a heavy influence on street mimes and circus clowns. Many of its standards and practices have been felt in the comedy of the Western world through the last few centuries, especially in Vaudeville and slapstick and some cartoons.

Commedia is not dead today. Even beyond its influence on comedy, it is still performed by numerous troupes throughout the world. Its humor of class differences, relationship problems, farce and slapstick can be timeless. Many of the stock characters still represent personality stereotypes seen today. Regional troupes will often play at local Renaissance festivals in traditional style, though updated versions of the characters and plots can work on any venue, to any audience, even those not yet familiar with the art form.