Description

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Scala’s The Fake Husband offers readers and performers an accessible English script which captures the comic brilliance of the commedia dell’arte. Expanded from an earlier scenario, Il marito (The Husband), the play presents characters originally created by members of the Gelosi troupe, in particular the stars Isabella Andreini and Sylvia Roncagli. Scala’s ability to capture the individual artistry of these women makes this script especially exciting and shows his appreciation of the towering contribution made by the female performers who joined the troupes in the 1560s. Also included is a comprehensive study of Scala’s place in the theatrical world and beyond.

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe - The Toronto Series, volume 75

About the Author

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Rosalinda Kerr is Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta and a fellow at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria University in the University of Toronto. She has published The Rise of the Divaon the Sixteenth-Century Commedia dell’Arte Stage (University of Toronto Press, 2015) and numerous articles on the contribution of commedia dell’arte actresses to the shaping of the Early Modern European stage.
 

Rosalinda Kerr is Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta and a fellow at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria University in the University of Toronto. She has published The Rise of the Divaon the Sixteenth-Century Commedia dell’Arte Stage (University of Toronto Press, 2015) and numerous articles on the contribution of commedia dell’arte actresses to the shaping of the Early Modern European stage.
 

Praise For…

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Rosalind Kerr offers the first translation into English of Flaminio Scala’s Il finto marito (The Fake Husband), first produced in 1618/1619. She provides a tremendous service to scholars and students of the commedia dell’arte by adding this important attempt by Scala at a Baroque play that raises the topics of female-to-female love and cross-dressing. Valuing commedia dell’arte as a “living, breathing, imitation of life” capable of moving the audience emotionally, and understanding the importance of literary forms in creating a lasting legacy for the achievements of theatrical performance, Scala turned again and again to publication, so that the expressive power of commedia dell’arte might be conveyed to a widening audience.

—Erith Jaffe-Berg
Professor, Department of Theatre, Film and Digital Production, University of California Riverside

"Rosalind Kerr offers the first translation into English of Flaminio Scala’s Il finto marito (The Fake Husband), first produced in 1618/1619. She provides a tremendous service to scholars and students of the commedia dell’arte by adding this important attempt by Scala at a Baroque play that raises the topics of female-to-female love and cross-dressing. Valuing commedia dell’arte as a 'living, breathing, imitation of life' capable of moving the audience emotionally, and understanding the importance of literary forms in creating a lasting legacy for the achievements of theatrical performance, Scala turned again and again to publication, so that the expressive power of commedia dell’arte might be conveyed to a widening audience."
— Erith Jaffe-Berg, University of California Riverside