Shaw Pageant 2024/ One Man, Two Guvnors by Richard Bean, directed by Chris Abraham, Pageant Theatre, closes Oct. 13. Tickets here.
The snicker out loud farce, One Man, Two Guvnors, by British playwright Richard Bean, takes us again to the glory days of the late lamented actor Heath Lamberts, farceur supreme.
In Lamberts, the Shaw Pageant had a comic who may deal with the dizzying tempo of the style and make it work, which isn’t a straightforward factor to do. Whether or not within the farces of France’s Georges Feydeau, or England’s Ben Travers, Lamberts made us snicker till we cried. (FYI, it was Lamberts, in his memorable one-man present, who coined the phrase, Niagara-on-the-Take.)
Lamberts should be wanting down from heaven, as a result of a successor has been discovered. In Peter Fernandes, who performs the hapless Francis Henshall, the one man who’s serving two bosses, we now have a comic book actor of beautiful timing whose physicality and facial expressions are at all times in play. The person is just not solely a firestorm of vitality, he’s hilarity in movement. Even standing nonetheless, he makes us snicker, as did the beloved Lamberts.
The supply for Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors (2011), is the well-known 1743 commedia dell’arte play, The Servant of Two Masters, by Italy’s Carlo Goldoni. Whereas commedia started as improvised avenue theatre with masked inventory characters, Goldoni formalized the style by writing it down. As such, he was very influential within the historical past of comedy as a result of he made his characters extra practical moderately than static stereotypes, but, throughout the presentation of the manners and behavior of precise life, he stored the exuberant spirit of commedia alive, as has Bean in his play.
The Story
The setting is Brighton, 1963. Commedia at all times had songs and so does One Man, Two Guvnors. On this case, English composer Grant Olding wrote authentic tunes for a skiffle band for the unique 2011 hit London manufacturing, that are carried out by forged members earlier than every act, and as scene covers. The very hummable tunes and easy lyrics take us proper again to the Nineteen Sixties, and delightfully so. The band additionally exhibits off the appreciable music abilities of the corporate.
This being a farce, the story is, after all, very sophisticated, an excessive amount of so to be written down. It must be skilled. Suffice it to say, Bean has positioned his characters within the small time prison underworld of Brighton, which provides to the humour.
Commedia had lazzi, or what we’d at present name schticks, or inventory comedian routines, and director Chris Abraham, a widely known man of comedy himself, has included a riotous bunch on this manufacturing. Absolutely the funniest is the geriatric waiter Alfie, carried out by Matt Alfano, who should have been an acrobat in one other life, given what he places his physique by way of. Right here’s a touch: it includes stairs.
The operating joke for our anti-hero Francis (Fernandes) is that he’s very hungry. He can’t eat as a result of his first boss, Rachel Crabbe (Fiona Byrne), in disguise as her useless brother Roscoe, hasn’t paid him so he can’t purchase something. His seek for meals in all of the mistaken locations is one other nice schtick within the play.
Then there may be the viewers involvement, which is screamingly humorous, and which I cannot expose. I’ll, nevertheless, give this warning. Watch out for those who’re sitting within the entrance row.
The Manufacturing
The actors consists of some notable firm members who all seem like they’re having enjoyable. They embody Martin Happer as imperially right Stanley Stubbers, Francis’ different boss, Tom Rooney as set upon minor prison Charlie Clench, Jade Repeta as Clench’s dimwitted daughter Pauline, André Morin as Pauline’s equally dimwitted wannabe actor fiancé Alan Dangle, Patrick Galligan as Alan’s pompous lawyer father Harry Dangle, Kiera Sangster as Charlie’s over-sexed bookkeeper Dolly, Allan Louis as Roscoe hanger-on Lloyd Boateng, late of Brixton jail, and Graeme Somerville because the supercilious waiter Gareth.
The manufacturing values are first charge. Julie Fox’s units and costumes lovingly evoke the Sixties, aided by Kimberly Purtell’s flashy lighting. As for director Abraham, he has squeezed out each doable snicker from wherever he may discover it, typically in probably the most shocking locations.
After all One Man, Two Guvnors is foolish, nevertheless it’s a farce in any case. Viewers members have to go away their brains on the door, tuck their intellects away, and simply come to be entertained.
And Shaw creative director Tim Carroll, are you listening? It’s a must to discover extra farces for Peter Fernandes, and produce again that much-missed pageant custom.
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