Opening May 29 in collaboration Theatre in The Park LLCC Theatre will be doing a Commedia dell'arte inspired version of Shakespeare's Comedy, The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Commedia (as it is known) was a renaissance improvised comedy that used broad physical comedy. It is from Commedia that we have acquired the term "slapstick.". The slapstick is a wooden bat of sorts that is thin and flat. It has two parallel boards so that when it is used to strike someone it makes a loud clapping sound.

The illustration above depicts Harlequin (or Arlecchino) one of the clownish characters in Commedia holding a slapstick.