'One Man, Two Guvnors' is a farcical comedy set in the Brighton of 1963. Based more than loosely on Goldoni's Commedia-esque 'The Servant Of Two Masters', we are given a very British seaside-postcard-humour instead of the Italianate Commedia Dell'Arte of the original. That does not mean however that the humour, style and characterisations are all that different, since much of what we consider to be typically British humour is in fact based very much on the Italian Commedia traditions!
But back to the play! It starts with, and indeed is interspersed with (covering each scene change) a Skiffle Band playing and singing the hits of the time. Two young student bands had been formed for this and they proved both a nice diversion to the sometimes too long scene changes [ obvious unwieldy and cumbersome flats notwithstanding! ] but also to firm and fix the era of the production even more. Costumes (and facial / body hair ) were superb, although the aging make-up did not work with such soft lights and close proximity to the audience. I enjoyed the set design too, beach huts was a lovely idea.
The play starts with a kiss. This kiss was neither real enough to be authentic, nor was it comedic enough to be truly funny. I am assuming that it should have been comedy. Had we truly laughed at the ridiculousness of this kiss, we would have known straight away the tone being set for the play, yet, as it was, we were slowly introduced to the comedy which was a shame. However, once the comedy did come, it was abundantly clear that all on stage knew what they were supposed to do and how it should be delivered. Due to this being the first night and so the first time in front of a live audience, as well as the young casts own inexperience, the timing and delivery was not always there, but this is a huge and important learning curve for them all. Generally the pace was too slow with cues not being picked up quickly enough or entrances coming a little late etc. But these are students learning their craft, and what they did manage to produce was actually highly entertaining and their understanding of their characters and the relationships between them very secure indeed.
Directed by Les Williams, there were some truly lovely ideas within this show. He obviously has a love of the style of humour and comedy required and his enthusiam brushed off onto the cast. I have only ever seen this play once before, but must either have missed or forgotten just exactly how full of sparkling and delightful one-liners the script is.
Leading this hightly talented cast was our protagonist, Francis, played with obvious glee and giving it his all - Joel Souter. The entire ensemble worked excellently together, and I enjoyed all their characterisations, all of which were solid and nicely placed. However, on a purely personal level I simply have to credit the amazing physical comedy skills of Luca Cribelli, simply making the part of the aged waiter Alfie his own.
These students have obviously worked extremely hard to bring about a production of this strandard and quality whilst still so young. Full credit to all who have helped them along the way and congratulations to each of them too. I look forward to seeing where their acting journey takes them next.
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