Action Theatre Italy are a truly international troupe, with two shows at the Edinburgh Fringe 2024. The Italians in England is set in 1572. “Shakespeare is some years away but Commedia dell’Arte’s combination of mask, comedy, wild plots, hilarious improvisation and women performing on stage is taking Europe by storm. Queen Elizabeth I insists on seeing the Italian players at her royal court. With leather half masks, exquisite costumes and live music, professional company Action Theatre (Italy) adapt Flaminio Scala’s original canovaccio, Il Vecchio Geloso (The Jealous Old Man), which includes a lunch invaded by wild boar. Servants and masters seek love and raw passion and reality collide at the Doctor’s house outside Venice.”
The show is part of the work of director Rupert Raison, who has been making masks for decades. (he is giving a talk on Commedia and Half Mask at the Fringe). In this interview Rupert and one of the perfomers, Juliet Turnbull, discuss the show, the history it covers, clown, mask and the ethos and approach of this unqie company. You can read our very favourable review of the show at Edfringe 2024 here.
Their second show, a family-friendly musical comedy, with puppetry, is Miss English’s Holiday, which also plays at theSpaceUk during the Fringe, also has a neat language-learning dimension to it: “A teacher’s magical seaside summer holiday is interrupted by an enthusiastic stowaway, Platypus. Miss English enjoys fish and chips, discovers love and deals with the English weather and an annoying seagull, but Platypus just wants her to teach English! With plot twists, puppetry, masks, magic, sing-along songs and comedy, this professional show is a proven hit with young audiences. Aimed at 3 to 7-year-old English speakers or children up to 9 where English is their second language.”
