Brawling in Chioggia

Carlo Goldoni

Comedy

Synopsis

Love, jealousy and the everyday chaos of living together: In the small harbour village of Chioggia, a harmless flirt is enough to jeopardise a whole network of relationships. Misunderstandings spring up, rumours are spread and friendly mocking turns into bitter struggles. Men and women, engaged couples, sisters and rivals are caught up in a web of suspicion, pride and perceived slights.

In the 1761 play “Brawling in Chioggia”, the writer of comedies Carlo Goldoni shows great insight into human nature in his portrait of a community where everybody knows everything about everybody else – or so they think. The play’s comedic surface conceals a precise analysis of social roles, gender stereotypes and power structures. Brought to the stage by Nuran David Calis, the piazza of Chioggia becomes a co-working space where the social fabric frays amidst the pressure to be constantly available and the absurdity of office hierarchies and where conflicts are escalated by the mechanisms of digital communications.

“The Office” meets Commedia dell’arte – but the fast-paced ensemble piece “Brawling in Chioggia” is more than just a light comedy of errors. It shows just how quickly communities can disintegrate, whether in an 18th-century fishing village or in between modern workspaces and messenger groups.

Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793) was an Italian playwright and theatre reformer. He wrote more than 150 works for the stage. Bored by typical masks and rigidly defined types, he modernised Commedia dell’arte, inspired by the French playwright Molière, with realistic characters, everyday language and themes of Venetian bourgeois life.

Nuran David Calis starts his second season as Director of the Drama Division with the staging of his first comedy at the Salzburg State Theatre. The stage director and writer, who is known for contemporary documentary theatre and adaptations of classics, presents Goldoni’s dynamic play in collaboration with his established team for stage and costume design as well as music.