ABSTRACT

Richard Andrews’s chapter aims to explain how professional Italian comici operated, and what they performed, in the seminal period of improvised theatre which dates approximately between 1550 and 1630, and to what extent Italian troupes influenced English drama. Andrews perceptively offers a revised view of what the practice of ‘improvisation’ actually entailed and argues that the dramas which Italian comici were performing included a wide variety of genres and of emotional tones, not just the farcical slapstick comedy which the visual records tend to emphasise. Moreover, in the period under examination, material which was used in improvised scenarios was based on what was also to be found in fully scripted Italian plays: there was no firm distinction between what was offered to audiences by the two performing methodologies. After charting the roles and styles of the major commedia dell’arte masks, the chapter stresses how improvised drama and troupes were not separated from plays written by more academic dramatists.