Commedia dell' arte

Watched a Finnish play yesterday called Kalevala Dell' Arte, an adaptation of parts of the Finnish epic, Kalevala in the genre of Commedia dell' arte, an Italian street theatre tradition from the 16th century.

I was told that Commedia dell' arte, a masked theatre tradition, was created by the first full time travelling theatre group in Europe. This anonymous medium was a voice to criticize society and ridicule the bourgeois. The plots were on common themes such as love, adultery etc. The roots of the modern clown are believed to have originated here. Some brief wiki hopping revealed this.