How do nationalized stereotypes inform the reception and content of the migrant comedian’s work? How do performers adapt? What gets lost (and found) in translation? Border-Crossing and Comedy at the Théâtre Italien, 1716-1723 explores these questions in an early modern context. When a troupe of commedia dell’arte actors were invited by the French crown to establish a theatre in Paris, they found their transition was anything but easy. They had to learn a new language and adjust to French expectations and demands. This study presents their story as a dynamic model of coping with the challenges of migration, whereby the actors made their transnational identity a central focus of their comedy. Relating their work to popular twenty-first century comedians, this book also discusses the tools and ideas that contextualize the border-crossing comedian’s work—including diplomacy, translation, improvisation, and parody—across time.

Matthew McMahan is the Assistant Director of the Center for Comedic Arts at Emerson College, USA, where he teaches the history of comedy, comic prose, sketch, and improvisation comedy. He has also taught acting, directing, and theatre history at a variety of institutions, including Tufts University, Merrimack College, and Dean College. His research interests include the history and practice of commedia dell'arte, French comedy, and clowning. He is also fascinated by the dynamic of internationalism in comedy: how comedy travels and how it is adapted and translated across national borders. His research has been published in Theatre History Studies, The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, The New England Theatre Journal, and The Texas Theatre Journal.