While it’s easier to throw a tomato and not hit a comedy act at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, some forms are less common than others. Particularly as some have simply slipped from fashion or common playing. One such, is that of commedia dell’arte, the Renaissance-era form of semi-improvised, archetypically laden and painfully horny descendant of the old Roman masked farces, the Atellanae Fabulae.
To remedy that, Italian company Action Theatre has brought a reworked version of a classic canovaccio (or scenario) of commedia dell'arte, Flaminio Scala’s Il Vecchio Geloso (The Jealous Old Man), a 16th-century bawdy farce, here performed entirely in English (except at moments where it's funnier not to).
The plot of the play centres around the convoluted scheme of the amorous young Venetian Oratio, who is hellbent on bedding the pretty young wife of the geriatric old man, Pantalone. With the help of his eager idiot manservant, a pouch full of coins and the corrupt nature of the hired help in general, Oratio puts into motion a series of events to allow him to sneak off and bed her at a surprise lunch party in the house of a rich Doctor. This falls amidst a whole slew of other inter-character romances and antagonisms, all set around rich stereotypes of the period.
The particulars of the piece are more fun left to be seen onstage, as this is a truly unique form of comedy. Yet, needless to say, there are a lot of slaps, mistaken identities and many, many references to sex. But the beauty here is in the grotesquery of the masks worn and the physical buffoonery, as well as the japes and jokes and the cast’s ability to bounce around the scenario in improvisational ways.
It’s a rare chance to see such work done this well at the Fringe, and if you get into the spirit of things and sink a glass or two of vino beforehand, there’s every chance you’ll be rolling in the aisles by the finish.