Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Feb 4: Providing to the theatre aficionados of winter capital an opportunity to experience firsthand the Italian traditional comic theatre, the Commedia Dell’Arte, Teatro Potlach Theatre Group from Italy, presented the play ‘The Comedy Of Harlequin And Pulcinella In Venezia’, at the Abhinav Theater, here today.
Performed on the second day of ongoing National School of Drama’s parallel festival of 18th Bharat Rang Mahotsav, being held in collaboration with J&K Academy of Art, Culture & Languages, today’s performance, a dramatized version of a story Six Characters of Commedia Dell’ Arte, was written by Claudio De Maglio and directed by Pino Di Buduo & Claudio De Maglio.
The plot of the play is about a puzzle to be solved by Harlequin and Pulcinella. Who is the ‘mysterious knight’? To resolve this task the two servants face together the sea, a tropical storm, the emotional storms of love, the deception of Mr. Pantalone the needy, and the vanity of a doctor. But in magical Venice, love will still wins over greed and power games. After a mixture of lies, cunning, tricks and pitfalls…. the plot takes many twists! The traitor is arrested and the mysterious knight unmasked.
Notwithstanding the fact that the play was Italian language, the audience appreciated the novelty of the classical appearance of the Harlequin stock character in the commedia dell’arte, in terms his chequered costume, mask, physical agility and trickster qualities of the nimble and astute servant, who often acts to thwart the plans of his master, and pursues his own love interest.
The strong elements of pantomime, free flow of expressive body movements complimenting the gush of dialogues, gymnastic movements like cartwheel by the actors along with ingenious use of props, were also appreciated. The actors Nathlia Mentha and Claudia De Maglio, who enacted multiple roles with great facility and control, got a thunderous applause from the audience.
Tomorrow A Puppet Dance Drama ‘Ramayana’ in Hindi, directed by Shanti Vardhan will be staged by Ranga-Sri Little Ballet Troupe, Bhopal.
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