Participants will learn about:

• Fo’s stylistic and political intentions and how these influence performance.

• Grotesque characterisation, taking ideas from Commedia dell’Arte stock types, to create satirical farce.

• Performing farcical character transformations, using levels of exaggeration.

• How comedy can be created in key scenes through character partnerships, physicality, language and comic lazzi (physical gags).

• Performance skills specific to comedy.

• How to make the play accessible for a contemporary audience.

• How to talk about the style and the comedy in sufficient detail in written responses.

It is well-documented that Fo was heavily influenced by Commedia dell’Arte, frequently modelling himself, in role, as a Harlequin-type character in his productions. This play is not a commedia dell’arte piece however, the characters do bear semblance to several of the stock character types from Commedia and study of these stock types can aid the student’s understanding and ideas for rehearsing as a director or actor and can also feed into design ideas too. Students will experience an intense participatory session whatever duration of workshop:

1.5 - 2 hour workshop:

• Character study using animals, tension states and Commedia dell’Arte stock types to encourage students into their bodies and to allow the characters to leap from the page so that the comedy can be seen, heard and experienced.

• Experimentation with key moments from the play to practically experience how comedy can be created through comic devices, character interactions and characterisation.

• Developing the language of farce, satire and commedia needed for writing at greater depth.

3 - 4 hour workshop:

All the above covered in greater detail, plus also:

• Exercises to develop ensemble complicité, to further stretch capacity for exaggeration and to discover the playfulness at the core of the farcical form.

• Several key sequences and scenes will be explored, analysing how comedy can be created through comic devices and characterisation.

• Exploration of staging and design elements to enhance the comedy and deepen student appreciation of farce.

5 - 6 hour workshop:

All the above covered in greater detail, plus also:

• Deeper exploration of the character contrasts, relationships and comic techniques through specific scene study.

• Extending the language through directing each other in sequences created from and around the text.

Online workshops:

The physicality of the characters will be demonstrated and discussed inviting participants to join in. This enables learners to understand the comic contrasts and exaggerated performance requirements of farce.

In 1 hour, the main male characters can be discussed and explored in some detail. In 2 hours, all characters can be covered with an exploration of specific scenes and lazzi (physical gags). In a 5 x 1 hour series, each session can take a different focus - this could be a different character each session or this could be a cumulative series deepening knowledge of characters, comic devices, scene work, staging, relationships and collaborative direction.