Servant of Two Masters: Commedia Dell’arte and Contemporary Humor  

By: Robin Goldberg, B.A. Theatre Studies: Playwriting, '15

I love nothing more than a theatrical production that brings as much joy to the cast and crew as it does to the audience, and Yale Repertory’s production of Servant of Two Masters did that and much more. With its delightfully silly plot and cast of masterful comedic actors, Servant both introduced audiences to the world of Commedia Dell’arte and gave the theatrical style a contemporary twist.
​For those new to the term and style, Commedia Dell’arte is an old, Italian form of theatre dating back to the 16th century. Commedia Dell’arte introduced the concept of traveling groups of professional actors who brought their productions to anywhere from city streets to the royal court. Productions of this nature relied on the use of a set of easily recognizable stock characters, including: the Inamorati (the young, unmasked, slightly dim lovers who often needed help from their servants to wind up together), the Pantalone (the foolish father of the young Inamorata who was often tricked and swindled out of his money), the Capitano (the swaggering, braggart captain who was often much more cowardly than he’d like to admit), the Dottore (the pompous, learned fellow who bored the other characters with his long-winded speeches), Brighella (the darker, more roguish of the two clown characters), and Arlecchino (the most famous character – the clownish acrobat who often fell in love with one of the maids). Commedia productions included some combination of these characters and told stories relating their love affairs and daily lives, peppered with comic interludes (“lazzi”). The most striking feature of these productions is that the actors worked with incomplete scripts, or rather, the scripts were more like the comic sketches modern audiences are used to seeing somewhere like Saturday Night Live. Commedia scripts included a basic plot structure and descriptions of certain points that needed to happen to move the story along, but the rest was up to the actors.
 

The concept of building a show through improvised sketches allows contemporary actors to really take a lot of liberties with an old script. The reason this contemporary adaptation of Servant was so successful was that the cast and production team were able to deftly weave together the past and present. At its core, the production stayed loyal to the original concept of the story. All of the well-known characters were present. All of the agreed-upon plot points were noted. However, the addition of contemporary and local humor was what breathed new life into the show. I was blown away by how seamlessly references to today’s pop culture blended with the bawdy humor of the past. In all honesty, it’s because things haven’t really changed much. Modern audiences are still tickled by lowbrow humor and slapstick follies. Commedia speaks to us because it allows for evolution and change of what we find funny. When Servant was first produced, I’m certain much of the improvisation was tailored to the current events of the time. The production is still relevant, and wildly funny, now because it still allows both the company and the audience to play with the ever-changing concept of what’s funny. I loved the references to Beyonce, Honey Boo Boo, various Broadway musicals, and the trials and tribulations of getting around on the T because they are so relatable to Boston audiences. The reason Commedia Dell’arte still makes us laugh is because, regardless of the time period, it remains fresh and relatable.
 

After two performances, I am still enamored with the cast and how well they all worked together. It really takes a lot of trust to be able to pull off something this wild. I am wonderfully impressed with Steven Epp’s portrayal of the Arlecchino, Truffaldino. I have never seen an actor handle such a character so skillfully and clearly have so much fun in the process. I thought the entire cast struck a great balance between coming off cartoonish and deeply relatable, and how they bounced their humor off of each other. I also loved how much the actors could portray with a fairly minimal scenic design. I think having some background knowledge of what to expect with Commedia Dell’arte may give a viewer a greater appreciation of the production, but overall I think anyone with a good sense of humor will really enjoy Servant of Two Masters and will come away with a new point of view on the evolution of humor.​

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Servant of Two Masters ran from January 29 - February 10th in the Paramount Main Stage.