Hello Dolly and Commedia dell’arte

I streamed the movie version (1969) of Hello Dolly on Monday afternoon as a treat for my sick granddaughter. She dug into the sofa, the way all sick kids do, surrounded by discarded Kleenexes and cough-drop wrappers. My goal was to show her something cheery, with lots of color and solid, good songs. Earlier that morning, I briefly thought this finally could be the occasion for her to see Puccini’s operatic masterpiece Tosca, but that misses “cheery” by a mile. So, Hello Dolly it was.

Despite decades of watching theatrical performances, both live and on film, I continue to be struck by the way plots and characterizations are predictable in most types of drama. There are reasons, of course. Our Western theatrical conventions are rooted in specific, traceable phenomena, many of which developed in Ancient Greece, but some of which solidified within a Renaissance phenomenon called Commedia dell’arte.  

The term means the “art of drama” and refers to a type of theater, timeless in nature, that came to fruition during the Italian Renaissance via the mediums of street theater and puppetry. Yes, your old friends Punch and Judy are iterations of characters from Commedia dell’ arte.

I enjoy teaching the topic of Commedia, be it to high schoolers, university students, or adults. It’s just plain fun to watch people make the connections between the old Italian names and bizarre costumes of characters like Pulcinella, Arlecchino, Pantalone, il Dottore, or Columbine with figures in modern shows and stories that they know (shows like I Love Lucy, Cheers, Seinfeld). Quickly, students learn where the substance comes from in today’s comedies, musicals, and films. They realize that even the most complex or seemingly innovative plot twists or dialogues have their precedents in pre-set scenes and situations, timeless gags, and stage disasters worked out centuries earlier in Italian towns and villages.

Today’s era does not abound in comedy, nor are there many opportunities to see and enjoy theatrical shows. In fact, I wonder if we will ever laugh freely again, considering how hard it has become for humor to survive under incessant public scrutiny. Yet the Commedia figures circumvent this rocky road. Clearly what today’s culture calls politically incorrect, these characters defy time and place. They cannot be beaten down, for they reimagine themselves and arise anew. Whatever is funny, or tragic, or touching about them is intertwined with what it means universally to be human.

So much good comes from immersing oneself and one’s children into timeless plots and iconic dramatic realizations. Classical theater and music dramas of all kinds (opera, Broadway shows) shine a spotlight on the inner nature of human beings. They knit our disparate, often clashing thoughts and actions into a whole, drawing clear lines of right and wrong, and bringing impossible circumstances to a fulfilling conclusion, particularly when the whole drama is set to music.

At any rate, Hello Dolly proved to be a fine way to fill up a couple of hours of time for a child aching from a fever. She is better now, and even partly caught up on her missed sheetwork—no easy matter in a school that uses Abeka curriculum, as does hers. It’s back to school tomorrow, albeit with a whole new repertoire of grands songs to run through her imagination.