Transcript The False Turk

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The False Turk
Lorna Smith
Bath Spa University

Best translated as ‘Comedy of Skills’:
- The actors are artisans and their
skills have been passed down
through the generations
- The performer uses his/her skills to
create ‘art’
Commedia dell’Arte:
background
The genre originated in the
seventeenth century in Italy and has
developed through the years.
Mr Bean is arguably one if its
descendants.
Commedia
dell’ Arte
We are using a script, but originally the
plays were improvised.
The improvisation was structured
around a plot and rehearsed comic
business – the ‘lazzi’ – e.g.
- ‘money’ – rubbing of fingers and thumbs
- ‘no money’ – turning out empty pockets
- the surprise embrace – a lover rushes towards the
object of his affections, only for her to step aside at the last
moment and the lover to embrace a broom handle or some other
substitute instead
Lazzi
1) Who is who?
Go round the circle and say your name.
Someone then starts by stating someone’s name and changing
places with them; that person then states another person’s name
and changes places, and so on. Run the activity for participants’
real names and then names from the script.
2) Variation on ‘Zip, zap, boing’:
 Zip: Pantelone – stamp foot/hands on hips
 Zap: Isabella (make it Bella) – girly shriek
 Boing: Capo Comico (make it Capo) – flourish
 (Rebuff) Flavio – kiss hands to audience (to send back to Capo)
Warm up
Introduction to the
characters
Read through
Focus on characterisation
- create a lazzi for your character; maintain the mannerisms of your
character throughout the read-through and performance
Read and ‘perform’
Arranged marriage (link to ‘A

Midsummer Night’s Dream’?
Racism (link to ‘The Merchant of Venice’?)
Mistaken identity (link to

‘Twelfth Night’?
Dramatic irony

Aspects to explore…

Grantham, B (2006) ‘Commedia Plays’
London: Nick Hearn Books (for more
information on Commedia dell Arte, lazzi and the
scripts to the plays)

See
http://www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/pdf/1854598716.
pdf for an introduction to ‘The False Turk’ from
the above book.
Further reading