Thursday, July 27, 2017

Scaramuccia, Scaramouche or Scaramucci - a theatrical character - now performing in Washington DC

Scaramuccia was a stock character in  Commedia dell'arte  - Northern Italian theater around the 16th century. The actors excelled in improvisation.  Commedia dell'arte topics included nasty,intriguing love stories (always with a fall guy), money extortion (how to excel at this)  or make fun of/get even with someone you considered more stupid than yourself.

In France, the Punch and Judy shows always had a Scaramouche character who was usually struck by Punch - attempting to knock off his head. (Scaramouche is now associated with puppets that have extendable necks!)

Need I say more? We now have a perfect example of Commedia dell'arte in Washington DC.  Ongoing performances depend on improvisation (nobody could write a script for these daily happenings) and as for knocking off somebody's head - vamos a ver! Hope springs eternal.......

On with the show! 
Intermission entracte: a ridiculous tweet about transgender individuals costing the government too much money when serving in the armed forces - the Washington Post compared these costs (based on a Defense Department-commissioned study from last year) to other military medical costs: 
"military spending on erectile dysfunction medicines amounts to $84 million annually, according to an analysis by the Military Times 10 times the cost of annual transition-related medical care for active duty transgender service members.
Government by tweets .......for twits...... hope the run of this play is cut short.

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