Harlequin meets Haneef,
as Commedia crash-lands in the 21st century
The five hundred year old masks of the Commedia dell’Arte are brought back to life in a new performance to premier at the Melbourne Fringe. Like the original Commedia, Alarm! will use stage combat, acrobatic moves, original music, improvisation and a touch of the burlesque to weave its farcical tale, but that tale is of ASIO and police powers, the war on terror, and sex dolls.
When and Where
The Spot Bar and Bandroom
133 Sydney Rd Brunswick,
corner of Union st, right by Jewell Station
7.30pm
Wednesday Sep 24,
Friday Sep 26,
Saturday Sep 27,
Sunday Sep 28,
Tuesday Sep 30
Wednesday Oct 1,
Friday Oct 3.
Note no show on Monday or Thursdays.
Tickets $20, $16 concession, $15 groups of ten or more, $12 on Tuesday Sep 30, 2 for 1 ticks on opening night, Wed Sep 24.
Bookings open from Sep 3, through Melbourne Fringe Festival.
Phone 03 9660 9666 or from melbournefringe.com.au
Commedia dell’Arte is the theatre which birthed Harlequin, Columbine, Pierrot and Punch (before he became a hand puppet). It is the much-studied well-spring of European comedy, which Moliere and Shakespeare drew on, but is rarely performed. Alarm! is for anyone who wants to see the original spirit of the Commedia: physical, violent, bawdy and very funny; getting its sharp teeth stuck into the issues of the day, just as it did five hundred years ago.
Director Robin Davidson, studied the form in France with John Rudlin and in Italy with Antonio Fava. ‘I was first attracted to Commedia as a young theatre student in Bathurst,’ said Davidson, ‘from the work of contemporary theatre-makers like the San Francisco Mime Troupe and Dario Fo. But when I encountered the masks, I was in love. They have a timeless energy, they transform actors, instantly connecting them with their bodies, and they love to improvise. They refuse to be tied down to a script.’
