Piccolo Teatro brings “˜Arlecchino’ to Freud
By Erica Diem
Oct. 19, 2005 9:00 p.m.
Not since the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles has the
American theater scene been fortunate enough to host the
world-renowned Italian company Piccolo Teatro di Milano. But this
year, as part of UCLA Live’s Fourth International Theatre
Festival, the company will be returning to Southern California with
its celebrated comedy “Arlecchino, Servant of Two
Masters,” running today through Sunday at the Freud
Playhouse.
“They are one of the world’s leading theater
companies,” theater professor Jean-Louis Rodrigue said.
“They were formed and founded to serve the people of
Italy.”
Written by the famous Carlo Goldini, “Arlecchino”
was first performed in 1747 and has been inspiring laughter and
amusement for worldwide audiences ever since. Performed in the
style known as Comedia dell’Arte, it is a showcase of the
company’s ability to maintain the hilarity of a play written
for an 18th-century crowd.
“Comedia dell’Arte is the theater of the
people,” Rodrigue said, “and Piccolo Teatro is the most
masterful theater of this style. The genre is known for being
extremely physical, and demands that the actors have flexibility, a
large range of movement and strength. It is very stylized and
demands a bit of slapstick; there are many pratfalls, jokes and
interaction with the audience.”
In keeping with the colloquial tone of the genre, the characters
of the play are not unique individuals, but rather standard
archetypes ““ clothed, masked and mannered to be easily
recognized by the audience.
As it happens, the actor who will bring Arlecchino to life in
the Freud Playhouse is well-acquainted with the part. Ferruccio
Soleri first donned the mask of Arlecchino in 1960, and has
continued in the role for the last 45 years. Soleri has also
restaged the show himself since the death of director and company
founder Giorgio Strehler in 1997.
“”˜Arlecchino’ has been restaged, but it is
still the same direction of Strehler,” said Soleri via
interpreter Licauli Lanfranco. “The set and decoration (have)
changed, but (they are) modeled after older one(s). Even if some
alterations have been made, the idea is still
Strehler’s.”
The company has also agreed to hold three instructional
workshops for UCLA acting students where, among other things,
Soleri will teach a class about how to utilize one’s body in
order to properly convey emotion when hidden behind a mask.
“The use of the mask demands your body do the
talking,” Rodrigue said, “and you have to be careful
that your movement can match the strength in the expression of the
mask you are wearing.”
After playing in 40 countries around the world for the last
half-century, “Arlecchino” will once again light up Los
Angeles. Though the play has classical roots and has run for
decades, age has not lessened its ability to enthrall its
contemporary audience.
“After many years, the reaction is still
extraordinary,” said Soleri. “Here in the States, as
well as throughout the world, there is a very emotional
reaction.”
“I grew up in Milano and the first play I ever saw at the
Piccolo was “˜Arlecchino,'” Rodrigue said.
“It is with enormous joy that I get to host them here and
have them perform the play that inspired me to be in the world of
theater.”
