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Connor Carew. Photo by Matthew Holler.
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The Mainstage season kicked off last week and the reviews are in for One Man, Two Guvnors! To read what the critics had to say, click on the links below.
One Man, Two Guvnors is a smart and energetic comedy directed by Joseph Discher. The play is adapted from Carlos Goldoni’s commedia dell’arte play The Servant of Two Masters. One Man, Two Guvnors transfers the action from classic 1743 Venice, Italy to hip 1960s Brighton, England. The audience will meet Francis Henshall, a disarming and doltish man, who finds himself employed by a local gangster and a notorious criminal. While desperately trying to prevent discovery of his dual employment, inspired insanity, high-low antics, and nimble wordplay ensue. Along the way, mistaken identity, mix-ups, madness, mayhem, and many belly laughs all lead to a romping conclusion guaranteed to leave you wanting more.
Discher remarks to his approach at directing this production, “When I think of approaching this play, I think of one of Francis’ lines. He is the main character, the “one man” serving “two guvnors.” In the second scene he says: “You got to concentrate, ain’t ya, with two jobs.” I take comedy very seriously, and I think we have two equally important jobs: to be real, and to play. I believe that the best comedy (and the best theatre) comes from being very specific and playing the reality of the situation–the high stakes circumstances of the scene. And that is balanced with our other job, to quite literally, play. Comedy is at it’s best when we embrace a sense of playful, inventive abandon, and combine that with specificity and reality. Otherwise, in a play with outrageous situations like One Man Two Guvnors, it becomes easy to let the silliness run away with you, and then nothing means anything any more, the stakes are gone. So we remind ourselves: what is this scene about? What is the event of the scene? What does the character want? We make that real on stage, and then we exaggerate it.”
