Boffo buffo A SOLDIER DIES in battle and finds himself surrounded by the members of an 18th-century Italian comedy troupe in "Zanni Got His Gun," a fresh slice of original commedia dell'arte theater by Tony Pisculli, at the University of Hawaii-Manoa Ernst Lab Theatre.
New play features
inspired zanni-ness
By John Berger
Star-BulletinAs with his excellent 1998 opus, "Guano dell'Amore," no prior knowledge of Italian theatre is necessary to enjoy Pisculli's fast-moving "commedia war epic."
Soldier (Jeremy Pippin) is adopted by a troupe of curious, comical zanni clowns and then used and abused by other characters.
The show is an engaging and timeless blend of sight gags, slapstick, non sequiturs, double entendres, one-liners, gibberish, physical comedy and colorful costumes.
"Zanni" is a fascinating window into another time and culture as well. Pisculli, who received a Po'okela Award last summer for his work as a fight choreographer, is also an avid exponent of commedia dell'arte, a style of comic theater that flourished at a time when Italy was divided into numerous small kingdoms and principalities and its people spoke mutually unintelligible dialects.
>> On stage: 10:30 p.m. today and Saturday ZANNI GOT HIS GUN
>> Place: Ernst Lab Theatre, Kennedy Theatre, UH-Manoa.
>> Tickets: $7 ($6 for seniors, students, military, faculty and staff; $3 for UH-Manoa students)
>> Call: 956-7655.
>> Also: Post-show discussion tonight; and playwright-director Tony Pisculli conducts a free "post-mortem" discussion, 5:30 p.m. Monday. Call 956-7677 for details.
Touring commedia companies transcended linguistic barriers by developing stock character types whose masks and mannerisms identified them on sight.
TWO OF THOSE familiar types are represented in "Zanni" by powerful fuddy-duddy Fakanapa (Ryan Miyashiro) and Fakanapa's bawdy and sexually aggressive wife, Rosalinga (Kelly Green Williams).
Quick costume changes allow most of the cast to play two major characters and a zanni as well. (Zannis -- the feminine version is zagna -- are the well-intentioned but dim-witted comic servants of the major characters).
Debra Jean Zwicker and Chihiro Hosono join Williams in playing the stock characters of Lawyer, Doctor and Grumpy Old Man, respectively.
Zwicker returns after another costume change to go at it with Ben Lukey as a pair of capitani. The latter are military men who in commedia dell'arte are invariably braggarts whose bark far exceeds their bravery.
Another standard part of the commedia tradition is a loose plot that, while outlined by the playwright, leaves the cast free to improvise dialogue or bits of action along the way.
Capitano Coccodrillo (Lukey) won the bragging contest on opening night and was hired by Fakanapa to avenge some slight.
Coccodrillo cut a brave figure until the battle began. He then retired to the rear and sent Soldier and the innocent playful zannis out to be slaughtered.
Playwright/director Pisculli doesn't lay out a direct anti-war message.
However, once you read in the program notes that zanni is thought to have been derived from Giovanni -- "John" or "Johnny" in English -- it's an easy mental leap to Dalton Trumbo's controversial anti-war novel, "Johnny Got His Gun."
"Zanni" moves faster but is just as entertaining as "Guano," the show Pisculli wrote and directed while completing work on his MFA at the UH several years ago.
The masks by Italian commedia designer Antonio Fava are striking and the cast does an excellent job animating the characters they represent.
THE AUDIENCE response to a scene in which Signora Rosalinga has her way with the compliant Soldier marked it as one of the brightest comic moments on opening night. The bragging match between capitani Coccodrillo and Bravazzo was another.
The consistent work of Miyashiro as Fakanapa and Hosono as Dottore Oishasan added other memorable comic moments.
Miyashiro also performed original music contributed by Sean T.C. O'Malley, a colleague from Pisculli's improv troupe, Loose Screws.
Click for online
calendars and events.
