Western and Iranian Major Forms of Comedy: A Comparative Research

The present study deals with four forms of western comic drama namely Ancient Greek Comedy (Old Comedy and New Comedy), Ancient Roman Comedy, and Commedia dell'arte as well as one form of Iranian Traditional Comedy, namely "Taqulid". Ancient Greek Comedy began at Athens in 486 B.C and was basically divided into three periods: Old Comedy, Middle Comedy and New Comedy. Old Comedy (468 – 385 BC) is known by the works of Aristophanes (career: 427 – ca.385 BC) who was the only author whose eleven comedies survived. There is very little known from Middle Comedy (385- 320 BC). Menander (ca 342 – 291 BC) was the only author of New Comedy (325 – 290 BC) that some parts of his plays remained. Old Comedy represented a political and satirical theatre that criticized the judgment system, attacked the new literature and philosophy as well as politicians and poets. The main focus was on Polis (Athens), while in New Comedy the attention moved to the Oikos (home), and the serious and critical theatre of Old Comedy changed to a lively and domestic theatre which plots involved young men in love, mistaken identities, long lost children and comedy of errors and comedy of manners. Ancient Roman Comedy is known by the works of Plautus (ca 254 – 184 BC) and Terence (fl. 166 – 60 BC) who both translated, adopted and Romanized the plays of New Comedy. The Ancient Roman Comedy was based on stock characters who appeared in every play. The main character of comedy was a clever slave who helped his master and was rewarded at the end of the story. The works of Plautus were more witty and popular while Terence followed a more serious and moral plot in his plays. Twenty plays of Plautus and six of Terence survive. Commedia dell'arte was a dramatic form that flourished in Italy and throughout Western Europe from sixteenth to eighteenth century. It was performed by a group of professional actors which each actor played a specific character like Zanni the clever servant, the stingy master or the braggart soldier, and the play was based on a scenario of which all the details and dialogues were improvised by the actors. Taqulid or Iranian Traditional Comedy is also based on stock characters, the plots vary in different plays which could be historical, imaginary, ethical,…, and the main character is Siah the clever servant. The research questions in this study formed based on similarities and dissimilarities between Old Comedy, New Comedy, Ancient Roman Comedy, Commedia dell'arte vis a vis Taqulid. The present comparative study, by applying descriptive and historical research methods, and based on a wide range of classical as well as new and celebrated research works, attempted to arrive at adequate answers to the purposed research questions. The research findings makes the formal and substantial comic elements in question more clear and appreciated when they are displayed in tabular charts, hoping to make Iranian traditional comedy more understandable when studied in comparative scope and explained with theoretical and critical approaches and concepts.