The Spiritual Power of Masks by Nigel Pennick

Author:Nigel Pennick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FOLKLORE/MAGIC
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2022-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

Fig. 15.1. The Lord of Misrule acrylic transfer print on Masonite (Nigel Pennick, 2012)

Masks and Influence of the Commedia dell’Arte

The Commedia dell’Arte is a dramatic form that originated in Renaissance Italy. It has the other, more descriptive, names of Commedia all’Improvviso, its original name before the eighteenth century, referring to the instantaneous, improvisational format of the plays, and Commedia alle Maschere, because of the masks worn by actors. Originating in entertainments at markets and fairs, it became a professional art of considerable complexity, hence its present name. It flourished between 1550 and 1750 but never died out completely. Its influence on popular entertainment and folk customs alike is enormous. Performers had to be versatile, being, in addition to actors, accomplished acrobats and musicians. The Commedia dell’Arte is famed for its stock characters in recognizable costumes and masks. Companies of about ten actors, each specializing in one character, performed plays that were not scripted but had scenarios, a series of acts with particular characters playing out a story with comic sketches. The actors improvised their performances and ad-libbed their spoken parts. Comic voices and exaggerated local accents and thick dialects were identified with particular characters. The earliest plays consisted of a master and a servant. The servant character may be the oldest, as there had been comic poems and performances from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries that featured a mistreated, unhappy servant and his schemes to get even.

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