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Details for The Labor of Isabella
La Travagliata Isabella
Very Brief Synopsis
This is a play about a formerly powerful man and his family on the run after attempting to kill the daughter's worthy suitor. They reunite at the home of a nearsighted friend who has a neighbor with romantic interests of her own.
Number of players
Total Main Characters: 10
Men: 7
Women: 3
plus extras
Additional Notes
- In the Scala version, the Dottore is not specifically Dottore Graziano, but is always just il Dottore.
- This is the only play in which Graziano is specifically very nearsighted. It is worth preparing a set of lazzi on that theme.
- The servant here named Grillo can easily be played by the same actor playing Pantalone.
- The title is an enigma since Isabella does not appear in this play. Based on little evidence, I suggest that we might take “Travagliata” to mean birth labor, and that Isabella Andreini was busy birthing one of her seven children when this play was performed, and that actors from another troupe: Margherita Luciani (Flavia) and her husband Gerolamo Garavini (usually Capitano Rinoceronte, but in Scala’s version Fabrizio) made a celebrity surprise appearance at the end.
- For a troupe wanting more female characters, Flavio could be replaced with a clever female servant.
