Theater Department to stage Servant of Two Masters

Skidmore's Department of Theater will present Carlo Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters as its fall main stage production.

Alma Becker, senior artist-in-residence, is directing the play, which was translated and adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher and Paolo Emilio Landi. The original, written in 1743, is a high-energy production in which comedy and farce abound.

The characters of the play are taken from the Italian Renaissance theatre style commedia dell'arte. In classic commedia tradition, an actor learns a stock character (usually accentuated by a mask) and plays it to perfection throughout his career. The actors had a list of possible scenarios, each with a very basic plot, called a canovaccio, and throughout would perform physical-comedy acts known as lazzis and the dialogue was improvised.

Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters was originally written as a scenario, a loosely based script associated with the commedia dell'arte tradition. Commedia originated in Italy in the 15th century and by the mid-1500's had matured into a form of entertainment led by highly-trained actors portraying stock characters, often wearing recognizable masks.

These performances required great physical ability, as the actors rely heavily on highly rehearsed lazzi or antics - comic bits of stage business that audience members can readily identify. Often these lazzi are either urbane or very vulgar. Both old Pantalone and the bombastic Dr. Lombardi portrayed in Goldoni's 1745 comedy are characters from the commedia art form. An assortment of servants known as zanni (from which we derive the English word "zany") are also an essential development of this genre.

Hatcher and Landi's reworking of The Servant of Two Masters is a cross between traditional Italian commedia dell'arte and post-modern vaudeville.  Goldoni's classic pits the madcap servant, Truffaldino, against masters, mistresses, lovers, lawyers, and multiple plates of meatballs. This fast-moving comedy is complete with acrobatics, juggling, audience participation, and a liberal dose of ad libs.

Performances are scheduled Nov. 19 through 21 and Dec. 2 through 5. Start times are 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, with matinees at 2 p.m. Sunday. A commedia pre-show will take place in the Bernhard Theater lobby one half hour before all performances.  

Admission is $12 for the general public; $8 for students and senior citizens. For reservations or information, plese contact the Skidmore Theater box office at 518-580-5439 or email boxoffice@skidmore.edu. For group sales, please contact Kathy Mendenhall at 518-580-5431.