CurtainUp
The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features, Annotated Listings


A CurtainUp Review
The Servant of Two Masters
By Charles Wright

Oh, what a mess! — Pantalone
Oh, what a marvel! — Truffaldino
Everything is confused. — Pantalone
Everything is enchanted. — Truffaldino
The Cast (Gerry Goodstein)
Farce, with its mistaken identities and antic misunderstandings, is a polarizing form of entertainment. Farce appeals to specialized tastes — spectators are either swept up in its silliness or left cold. And Carlo Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters is the most polarizing of farces.

Goldoni (1707-1793) wrote more than 250 plays and opera libretti. Outside the Italian-speaking world, he's remembered primarily for The Servant of Two Masters. In that script, which dates from the middle of the 18th century, he captured for posterity stock characters and some narrative conceits of the unscripted commedia dell'arte tradition.

Commedia dell'arte was the most populist of entertainments, performed by peripatetic players in any available venue — inns, parks, even along the roadside. It's unlikely that many of the actors in the bands that toured with commedia repertory had much education. Their bawdy, freewheeling scenarios were handed down from generation to generation during the better part of two centuries before Goldoni's birth.

Truffaldino (Steven Epp), the servant of Goldoni's play, doesn't realize that that the man for whom he works is recently deceased and impersonated by a woman, Beatrice (Liz Wisan). The disguise is part of a scheme by which Beatrice hopes to claim the dowry that would have come to her brother had he lived to wed Clarice (Adina Verson), the daughter of Pantalone (Allen Gilmore).

While Beatrice's attention is elsewhere, Truffaldino signs on with another employer to make extra money. By the kind of coincidence common in farce, Truffaldino's second master is Florindo (Orlando Pabotov) to whom Beatrice is engaged and whom she believes to be back home in Torino. Needless to say, Truffaldino's moonlighting leads to farcical chaos when both masters start making urgent, often conflicting, demands.

In commedia dell'arte the lineaments of plot were primarily occasions for improvisational clowning by actors playing stock figures. The stock characters appearing in The Servant of Two Masters include a couple of clowns or zanni (Epp and Liam Craig), two pairs of lovers (Wisan and Pabotoy; Verson and Eugene Ma), a couple of none-too-wise fathers (Gilmore and Andrew Grotelueschen), and a quick-witted, sharp-tongued young serving woman (Emily Young).

The version of The Servant of Two Masters now being presented under the auspices of Theatre for a New Audience began at Yale Repertory Theatre, where it ran in 2010. Since then it has been seen at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Directed by Christopher Bayes, the Head of Physical Acting at Yale Drama School, the production utilizes a translation by Christina Sibul, adapted for contemporary performance by American playwright Constance Congdon (Tales of the Lost Formicans). Bayes and Epp, who is Co-Artistic Director of Theatre de la Jeune Lune, are credited with "further adaptation."

Designed by Katherine Akiko Day (scenery), Valerie Therese Bart (costumes), Chuan-Chi Chan (lighting), and Charles Coes and Nathan A. Roberts (sound), the production is filled with visual and aural suprises. The stage is decorated with miniature palazzos and a handsome church dome. The sky above the Gulf of Venice is a field of della Robbia blue with Magritte-inspired clouds.

The evening opens with a couple of clowns who, flashlights in hand, blunder onto a dark, empty stage where they discover the trunks of a commedia troupe. Sorting through masks, costumes and other theatrical paraphernalia, they release a host of fireflies. What follows is exquisitely picturesque: the two clowns chasing after blinking fireflies in an auditorium dimly illuminated by multicolored fairy lights.

During the play's two-plus hours, the cast of classically-trained actors engage in energetic slapstick. They make knowing references to American pop culture, the recent presidential election, sing charming ditties, and engage in banter with the two-person band (Christopher Curtis and Aaron Halva).

In the tradition of commedia dell’arte, many jokes are risque. There are a few instances of out-and-out vulgarity, but only one gross-out moment.

The proceedings close in a manner as picturesque as the beginning: an outsized crescent moon rises over a wild goose chase involving 11 actors and all the aisles of the orchestra section of the Polonsky Shakespeare Center.

For people who like farce, all of this is heavenly stuff. For those in the anti-farce camp, it's likely to be torture.





Search CurtainUp in the box below Back to Curtainup Main Page

PRODUCTION NOTES
The Servant of Two Masters
By Carlo Goldoni
Adapted by Constance Congdon; further adapted by Christopher Bayes & Steven Epp
>From a translation by Christina Sibul
Director: Christopher Bayes
Cast: Liam Craig (Brighella); Aidan Eastwod (Waiter); Steven Epp (Truffaldino); Allen Gilmore (Pantalone); Andy Grotelueschen (Dottore); Eugene Ma (Silvio); Orlando Pabotoy (Florindo); Sam Urdang (Waiter); Adina Verson (Clarice); Liz Wisan (Beatrice); Emily Young (Smeraldina)
Scenic Design: Katherine Akiko Day
Costume Design: Valerie Therese Bart
Lighting Design: Chuan-Chi Chan
Sound Design: Charles Coes & Nathan A. Roberts
Composer/Music Director: Aaron Halva
Composer/Musician: Christopher Curtis
Fight Director: Rick Sordelet
Production Stage Manager: Sonja Thorson
Running Time: 2 hours and 25 minutes, with one intermission
Presented by Theater for a New Audience
At the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place (Brooklyn)

>From 11/6/16; opened 11/16/16; closing 12/4/16
Reviewed by Charles Wright at the November 15th press performance


REVIEW FEEDBACK
Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
  • I agree with the review of The Servant of Two Masters
  • I disagree with the review of The Servant of Two Masters
  • The review made me eager to see The Servant of Two Masters
Click on the address link E-mail: esommer@curtainup.com
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V):

Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review.

For a feed to reviews and features as they are posted at http://curtainupnewlinks.blogspot.com to your reader
Curtainup at Facebook . . . Curtainup at Twitter
Subscribe to our FREE email updates: E-mail: esommer@curtainup.com
put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message. If you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country.

©Copyright 2016, Elyse Sommer.
Information from this site may not be reproduced in print or online without specific permission from esommer@curtainup.com