Julie Taymor's interest in masks has provided a modern equivalent for l8th century commedia dell' arte and her visuals attract people to these wonderful fairytale plays. The Serpent Woman weaves traditional bawdy, irreverent commedia characters into a magical landscape inhabited by Cherestani , a fairy queen, and Farruscad , her mortal prince. But with a great deal of humor, love triumphs in the end. Pontine Movement Theatre's unique adaptation of this theatre classic uses masks, colorful costumes and sets, toy theatre, and puppetry to evoke Carlo Gozzi's love of fantasy, enchantment and special effects. The Love of 3 Oranges is an operatic reinterpretation of Gozzi's 18th century fable with a cast that includes comedians, tragedians, lyricists, cranks, and empty heads in Sergei Prokofiev 's 1921 farce.
Laughter is the only cure for an ailing prince.
His problem is that nothing amuses him even though his father, the king, tries everything. Scholars see his plays as an attack on the sentimentalism of 18th-century Italian dramatists and consider Gozzi's output to be the final flowering of the Italian Commedia form. If you've been an understudy for the heart's sad craftsmanship, get some Gozzi.