Ancient comedy continues to draw laughs
Beyond the Brink Productions presents The Servant of Two Masters at the Motel in Epcor Centre through March 17. Tickets & Info: www.beyondthebrink.com or 403-4611995
If you think commedia del’arte sounds like theatre that’s good for you, think again.
To paraphrase an old Starkist Tuna ad, it’s theatre that tastes good.
Just ask Mike Griffin, the man behind The Servant of Two Masters, why a 21st century Calgarian theatre type feels compelled to produce 300-year-old Italian plays.
“A lot of people ask me why do we do commedia today,” Griffin says. No kidding. And yet, “I see it everywhere I look — it’s just not called commedia. Look at The Simpsons — we see the characters. Mr. Burns is an easy relation to the character Pantalone (in The Servant of Two Masters).
“Sitcoms,” he adds, “any sort of slapstick comedy — Friends, Three’s Company, lots of these sort of sitcoms which have all these comic gags — someone trips, someone hits their head, it’s funny, there’s a laugh track — all of those things really have strong roots in a style of commedia, although a lot of people don’t really realize that.”
In other words, we are talking about the ancient roots of almost every single situation comedy ever invented.
The Servant of Two Masters tells the story of Beatrice, who travels to Venice disguised as her dead brother to find the man who killed him.
Along with her is her servant Truffaldino, and together they set about to collect a dowry that results in as many comic mishaps as if Rachel and Ross ran off to Vegas for a shotgun wedding.
True to the traditions of the genre, Two Servants features masks, lots of improvised comic business devised by the Calgary cast — and an audience-inclusive style that is a little more street busker than classic theatre.
Which is because that’s where commedia del’arte started out all those centuries ago: in the streets of Italy, on market day, when the local acting troupe would lay down a small stage and put on a show.
“There’s constant referral to the audience,” Griffin says, “talking to the audience, sort of makes them feel part of the show — because realistically, back in the 1600s or whatever, if you didn’t connect with the audience, they would just wander off and go see something else in the square.”
Griffin, whose most recent production was last year’s critically-acclaimed Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad, first became smitten with the genre directing Carlo Goldoni’s The Liar as part of his MFA program at the University of Calgary.
“I thought, I really want to dive into this on such a deeper level,” he says. “The best opportunity I found was working in Reggio Emilia, Italy, with Antonio Fava so I went there and stayed for a month.
“It was phenomenal,” he adds. “Just the fact that you’re in Italy learning about an Italian style of theatre — nothing could beat it, really.”
Now that he’s back in Calgary, Griffin is plunging into a different kind of theatrical education — one he is happy to report happens quite organically in the city’s supportive theatre community.
Griffin assisted Kevin Mckendrick on a recent production of Behanding in Spokane, as well as working with Nicki Loach on a Quest Theatre production and last spring’s Ghost River Theatre production of Reverie.
Coming up, he’ll be working on Sweeney Todd, the macabre musical, at Vertigo this spring.
“The community’s been great at opening its doors and allowing me to learn,” Griffin says. “Even if it’s just, hey, let’s grab a coffee, let’s grab a beer and talk about these things, what it’s like to run a company and that kind of thing.”