ABSTRACT
This chapter details generic aspects of Commedia dell’Arte, drawn from my own practice and research, and places them within the contemporary context of community-based drama, linking it with the dramaturgic concept of ‘repeatability’, which I define as a feature of contemporary mainstream theatre. I propose that the theorised flexibility within so-called original practices (OP) performance should be seen as part of a pan-European concept of ‘early modern’, which when reconstructed today is vital to contemporary engagement with theatre, standing distinct from ‘repeatability’. Flexibility within any given performance is a prominent and defining feature of early modern Commedia dell’Arte, and as both community theatre and, potentially at least, OP performance are included in the Shakespeare North Playhouse’s agenda in Prescot, this chapter proposes a new model of community theatre practice using Commedia dell’Arte. Commedia dell’Arte is at its strongest when reimagined as a comic mirror to specific geographical areas, placing the comedy within an environment instantly recognisable as their own by the audience, populated by local types and fuelled by issues of local concern, making it an ideal vehicle for expressing community concerns.
