I'm a leading Commedia dell'Arte and Physical Theatre practitioner and award-winning actor and director. I work in theatre, opera, dance and cinema. I teach at RADA in London, and at the Accademia dell'Arte in Italy. Subscribe to our Art of Movement monthly newsletter—an inspiring community of artists, movers, and readers!
The Art of Movement - Issue 2
Published 9 days ago • 3 min read
Issue #2
The Legacy of Commedia dell'Arte in Contemporary Theatre
Hello Reader
Today, I’d like to share my thoughts on the relevance of Commedia dell’Arte in contemporary theatre—and more specifically, how it shapes my work. This feels timely as I’ll soon be leading Commedia dell’Arte workshops for contemporary theatre-makers and performing my solo show, Don't You Dare!—inspired by my research into its lasting legacy. [Details about the workshops and show are at the end of this article.]
You can read or download my article on the topic below:
THE LEGACY of COMMEDIA dell'ARTE IN CONTEMPORARY THEATRE
The notion of actor’s theatre
Chiara D'Anna as Arlecchino in Don't You Dare! Tristan Bates Theatre, London. Photo by Riccardo Sai
Commedia dell’Arte is studied in drama schools, universities, and conservatoires worldwide. Its influence extends far beyond live performance and contemporary theatre—shaping western popular culture in visual art, cinema, cartoons, and even television.
What makes Commedia so enduring?
While improvisation, slapstick, and masks are fundamental aspects of this theatrical tradition, in my opinion they are not necessarily its most valuable contributions today. Instead, I believe Commedia’s greatest gift to contemporary performers and theatre-makers is the notion of Actor as Creator.
This is a fundamental stage principle acknowledging that actors are not only interpreters of a given text but also creators of original material for the stage.
Commedia dell’Arte and Devised Theatre
Through the exploration of Commedia techniques, my practice aims to demonstrate how performers, directors, and theatre practitioners can utilise Commedia dell’Arte as a fertile ground for developing devised performances today. Devised work can be defined as a performance created without an existing script. This type of work is the result of a collaborative process in which all artists involved explore a specific event or topic of interest and develop a performance.
Reinventing Commedia Masks
The way I integrate Commedia into my devising process can be described as a reinvention of the traditional Commedia Masks. I use lowercase – masks – to indicate the leather objects used in performance and uppercase – Masks – when referring to Commedia dell’Arte’s characters, often called fixed types, stock characters, or archetypes. But how can these Masks, developed in 16th-century Italy, be useful to contemporary theatre-makers? Can they be used to reflect on the absurdities, weaknesses, and faults of our society as effectively as they did back then? I think they can.
Traditional Masks: Capitani in Callot's Balli di Sfessania
Creating New Masks for Today
I see Commedia’s traditional Masks as templates to be used to create our own Masks. These are the product of our creativity and stem from the observation of our world. As the commedianti did in the 16th and 17th centuries, we must make our stories and characters relevant to contemporary audiences. After all, Commedia dell’Arte was the 'contemporary theatre' of its time!
Commedia in My Solo Work
In devising my latest solo show, Don't You Dare!, I utilised historical texts, newspaper articles, contemporary politicians’ speeches, and plays, as well as autobiographical material. After an initial stage of improvisation, I integrated Commedia dell’Arte’s techniques to refine each character’s voice and physicality. The traditional Masks of Commedia dell'Arte offered me a framework to develop a clear physical vocabulary for my characters and a specific style for my performance. I called these characters experiential Masks.
I chose the adjective experiential for two reasons. First, they stemmed from the actor’s life experience—familiar people, places, and situations. Second, the actor experiences the process of creating her own Masks. Just as sculptors transform a block of marble or carpenters shape a piece of wood, actors transform their body, voice, and memories. These Masks are created by actors in response to their world, culture, and experiences.
Bigger-than-Life Characters
As the commedianti did in the 16th century, I did not attempt to reproduce real life and believable characters as faithfully as possible. Instead, I observed real people and events, selecting specific traits and qualities. By magnifying these qualities, I developed ‘bigger-than-life’ characters, transforming the literal—real events, people, and places—into the non-literal. Commedia dell’Arte’s techniques and principles provided the tools to develop a theatrical version of the observed world.
The Actor at the Heart of Creation
I believe that a rigorous study and practice of Commedia dell’Arte is essential. However, this is only the starting point of the creative process. The work with Commedia Masks becomes truly exciting for me when performers use them to develop characters and stories related to their world and life experience. This means placing the Actor at the heart of the creative process.
Commedia is, after all, an Actor’s Theatre!
'Experiential Masks': characters in Don't You Dare! solo show (2020). Photo by Riccardo Sai.
Actor, Director, Movement Coach & Commedia dell'Arte Specialist
I'm a leading Commedia dell'Arte and Physical Theatre practitioner and award-winning actor and director. I work in theatre, opera, dance and cinema. I teach at RADA in London, and at the Accademia dell'Arte in Italy. Subscribe to our Art of Movement monthly newsletter—an inspiring community of artists, movers, and readers!
