ABSTRACT
This is a form of improvisation that serves, either as a lazzi grande (big lazzi) to refocus the audience’s attention after a disruption to the play, or else as an introduction to all the Masks to be used in a particular performance instead of a prologue. It involves, typically, the action starting with two Masks on stage, one, for example, doing violence to the other in some manner and escaping. Another Mask enters and the Mask who has just been injured takes their frustration out in a slightly more violent way on this new arrival, and then similarly escapes. A fourth Mask enters and is treated exactly the same, with a rising violence. This progression carries on until you are back with the original two Masks on stage, whereupon they simply carry on the story where they left off. As an alternative to violence, try a loaf of bread, a flower, etc. Another so-called ‘chain’ impro can be based on the idea of one Mask remaining on stage – A, A/B, A, A/C, A, etc., rather than A, A/B, B, B/C, C, etc. A famous example of this is to be found in the Flaminio Scala scenario Il Cavadente (the tooth puller). Pantalone bites Pedrolino and, in revenge the latter persuades the other Masks to join him in persuading Pantalone that his breath smells. One by one they encounter him with this fact until he is convinced and begs Pedrolino to find him a dentist – who turns out to be none other than Arlecchino in disguise, with a bag of carpenter’s tools.
