Director's Notes

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Commedia D'elle Arte (literally, the art of comedy) was a theatrical style immensely popular in Italy during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It was performed by troupes of traveling actors who set up impromptu stages in town squares. They spent years in developing a repertoire of plays, with the same actor playing the same role for his or her entire career. Since audiences and playing conditions varied widely from place to place, the plays themselves were highly improvisational. A basic plot outline would be followed, but was changed to suit the particular audience or political climate of each place in which the actors performed. Often lazzi, or comic bits, would be thrown in on the spot as the actors felt that the audience's attention was waning, or in response to some spontaneous audience reaction. What worked was developed and kept in the company's "bag of tricks," and what didn't work was cast aside.

The Commedia repertoire was ever-changing, growing adapting, and fine-tuning. The Commedia as a living, rather than a literary art. For that reason, very little actual texts from the genre exist. But the form has influenced the theatre and entertainment world in every era since its inception. Shakespeare freely borrowed the plots from Commedia for all his comedies. His conventions of mistaken identities, lost children and siblings, women dressing as men to make their way in a strange country--all originated in Commedia scenarios. Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers, and The Three Stooges--even (gasp) modern TV sitcoms--are all derivative of this early theatrical form.

Moliere became fascinated by the style when he shared a residency at a Parisian theatre with an Italian troupe. Night after night, he watched, enjoyed, and imbibed their theatrical style. The fruit of this inspiration was SCAPIN. It typifies the earthly, slapstick flavor of the Italian comedies, rather than the high style of other French forces of the time. The plot is simple, the language accessible, the themes universal, and the action wacky, particularly in this version by Jim Dale and Frank Dunlop.

Who hasn't dealt with a rebellious child? Had a secret to keep? Helped a friend out of trouble? Or wanted to whack the daylights out of somebody in revenge? And who hasn't wished--at one time or another--to be as mischievous as Scapino--and get away with it? "See this Naples and die--laughing!"