Comic Movement

Comedic movement is any physicalized movement or gesture which sells a joke to the audience. This can also sometimes be referred to as slapstick comedy or physical comedy. Based largely on exaggerated movements, this physical expression usually portrays some degree of physical pain or suffering, which is done in a humorous light. Comic movement is used in many styles of theatre including mime, pantomime, and Brechtian or Epic Theatre. Through exaggerated or heightened physicality, an actor can communicate character, narrative, and comedy to the audience.

Terminology

• Brechtian Theatre: a theatre genre created by Bertolt Brecht; has similarities to epic theatre, but features a linear narrative and emotional engagement from the audience. The goal of Brechtian theatre is to entertain.
• Commedia dell’arte: A form of popular theatre emerged in Italy during the fifteenth century. It is characterized by improvised dialogue and a cast of colorful stock characters.
• Epic Theatre: a form of didactic drama that encourages objectivity and the absence of empathy, featuring an episodic structure and fractured narrative. The goal of Epic Theatre is to make the audience think critically.
• Exaggeration: When an acting style is “larger than life” or magnified.
• Gesture: A movement of any part of the body that helps to express an idea.
• Laban Technique: a movement technique developed by Rudolph Laban to help actors develop character.
• Lecoq: a theatre practitioner known for his teaching methods in physical theater, movement, and mime.
• Mime: a theatre technique where the actions, characters, and emotions are expressed only through movement, expressions, and gestures
• Pantomime: A development of Commedia dell’arte that features stock characters, slapstick humor, and traditional fairy-tale story arcs.
• Physical comedy: Jokes that are communicated to the audience through the body language of the actor.
• Pratfall: a stage combat move in which the actor falls onto their buttox in a comic manner.
• Slapstick: A type of comedy that uses physical gags.