Commedia dell'Arte

Commedia dell'Arte is a sexy and percussive style of theatre that goes deep into the core of a story, explodes it from the inside and presents it in a show of grotesque fun and heartfelt intensity. The style is at once extreme and truthful, tragic and deeply funny.

Everything in Commedia is about clarity of the moment and full play within it. The whole thing is designed to make sure the audience knows and feels exactly what is happening as the story unravels. Ours is very much a renegade version of the traditional Commedia dell'Arte - a long distant and slightly disturbed American cousin.

The origins of this work come from Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil via Tim Robbins's Company, Actors' Gang and John Cusack's New Crime Productions in Chicago and eventually to Dublin. What this work has in common with what we understand about the traditional Commedia dell'Arte is that it is based on masked improvisational theatre which brutally exposes the human condition using stock characters and cheap gags.

We use the commedia characters because they provide a good structure to describe the various stock characters in our society.

Emotional States

In the style, the actor endeavours to physically manifest four emotional states - happiness, sadness, fear and anger - through the mask of the character.

Character Images

Almost cartoonlike in essence, the style uses wigs and fat pads to create hyper-realistic images. Our aim is to find characters that are instantly recognisable by the audience. Slightly larger than life, but still truthful to life.

Our version of the style uses some of the traditional stock characters of Commedia dell'Arte - but in a contemporary context.

Pantalone
The miser (and his wife and children)
What drives them: Money and Power

Dottore
The nutty professor or empassioned artist
What drives them: Work - science, art, music

The Lovers
What drives them: Love or the lack of it

Capitano
The bully
What drives them: Proving their own authority

Arlecchino
The lighthearted trickster
What drives them: Fun, food, sex, trickery

Brighella
Arlecchino's evil counterpart
What drives them: Other people's pain

Colombine
Arlecchino's female counterpart
What drives them: Survival - usually has to use sex to get by

Mama Pina
The fishwife
What drives them: Trying to keep her husband out of the pub and her many kids fed

Puncinella
The working class man
What drives them: Drink, denial

Max
The innocent, the village idiot
What drives them: Staying out of trouble