Season 58 Play 3 – A Servant to Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni
Directed by
Cast
Florindo – Anthony Morton
Dr. Lombardi – Tony Reavill
Pantalone – Guy Wilman
Smeraldina – Alison Main
Beatrice – Carol Southby
Brighella – Graeme Holbrough
Silvio – James Rogers
Truffaldino – Bruce Sturrock
First Waiter – John Dawson
Second Waiter – Danny Mason
First Porter – Danny Mason
Second Porter – John Dawson
Synopsis
In this 18th Century Commedia dell’arte, a wily Italian servant hits on the scam of doubling his income by serving two masters without their knowing. Underpaid, overstretched, he “gets lucky ,” in this new adaptation.
Directors Notes
Carlo Goldoni’s farce is a masterful amalgam of stock comic types and almost incomprehensibly complex plot, mistaken identities, misdirected messages, high wit and low slapstick. A woman is disguised as a man and has come in search of her lover to the very inn where he is staying. There is also a woman who has somehow become engaged to the woman in disguise, her jealous lover, their confused families and assorted servants and innkeepers to keep things from getting too simple. At the centre is the servant Truffaldino, a
whirlwind of frantic energy and beguiling charm; inventing lie after lie, twisting himself into knots of invention and amazing himself as much as us with his success.
Goldoni is at his best when laying scenes in Venice. His heroes and heroines are conventional figures. Vivid presentations of humbler types, porters, servants, and the middle classes, merchants, lawyers and innkeepers. He saw everyday life from a comic point of view which is universal in time. I think he would have approved of our open minded approach with this adaptation, which, though firmly placing the action in Venice, has moved it to the 1920s and added a little spice with some music. Please come with us on our journey and enjoy the evening.
