Just For the Fun

What Is a Man to Do?

What is a hungry lad about town, Francis Henshall, to do when recently unemployed due to the unfortunate (or fortunate) demise of his unsavory boss, Roscoe Crabbe? He is desperate for food, which seems to be just out of reach every time he attempts to eat. Having been without that life-sustaining necessity for 16 hours, our corpulent hero goes to great lengths to secure a snack here, a drink there, a lamb chop, or a tenderloin, or whatever he can get his hot little hands on that even resembles food. He also has his eye on a sexy feminist bookkeeper and would like to make sweet love with her. Which is more important to him? A conundrum, for sure. In an outstanding performance by Peter Fernandes, Francis’ quest for both kinds of sustenance is the catalyst for getting him into outrageous situations in a series of hilarious scenes in which Mr. Fernandes dazzles the audience with his physical comedy, improvisational skill, facial expressions, and all around cheekiness. It seems like he never stops moving, even when he is occasionally still. If not his entire body, then his arms, his hands or just his eyes are in motion, usually up to something funny. He engages with the audience to the point that it seems as if we’re all in this together. He encourages and admonishes us, makes fun of us, and asks for our help, which we are all more than willing to provide. In one frantic scene, he fights with himself, using a garbage can lid to attack himself as he fights back and forth until one of him is knocked out. Whew!

But that is not the beginning or the end of the story or of the hilarious situations, pratfalls, and clever, sometimes laugh-out-loud dialogue, and excellent acting, as this seriously silly farce hits all the right notes, high and low, raunchy, bawdy, innocent, charming, and sometimes so over the top that it is hard to believe one’s own eyes.

Commedia Dell’arte

Based on an 18th Century play by a Venetian, Carlo Goldoni, The Servant of Two Masters, this updated, much revised version written by Richard Bean maintains the sensibility of the Italian commedia dell’arte, the improvisational bawdy comedies of the time. This is one of the funniest plays ever. It is almost non-stop laughter and fun no matter who is on the stage at any given moment. Where else could one see a man play his stomach as a drum and then play his cheeks, while singing a song about his father who could never get enough dinners?

This madness all takes place in 1963 in Brighton, England, a going-to-seed middle-class resort town. A skiffle band entertains on the pier as the show opens. Skiffle music is pop music that was widespread in England until Beatlemania changed everything. They use professional and home-made instruments, and sing simple and often amusing songs. There was even a tap dance during one song, and as everyone knows, you can never go wrong with tap. There is a fascinating article in the program about skiffle that is full of surprises. Be sure to read it.

There is a plot and many characters in the play, all of whom are finely drawn and provide hilarious moments. As to the plot, convoluted as it is, it does make a kind of sense if you suspend any attempt at reasoning, and is easier to keep up with than one might imagine when reading a synopsis. Charlie Clench (Tom Rooney) has promised his dim-witted, innocent, very blond daughter, Pauline (Jade Repeta) to Roscoe to pay a debt, and both are overjoyed that Roscoe, who was a homosexual and only wanted her for arm candy, is no longer a threat. That is until he comes back from the dead and demands her hand and the £6200.00 Charlie owes him. Uh Oh. Pauline is in love with Alan Dangle (Andre Morin), a thespian wannabe, who professes undying love for her in overarching nonsensical monologues. He is a man truly in love with himself. What to do, what to do? Roscoe, who is really his twin sister Rachel (Fiona Byrne), is desperate for the money so she and her lover, the hairy Stanley Stubbers (Martin Happer) can run off to Canada, he having stabbed her brother to death. Francis arrives at the Clench residence, flirts with the food and the bookkeeper, Dolly (Kiera Sangster), and agrees to work for the now resurrected Roscoe. Meanwhile, Stanley arrives in Brighton, and through a series of miscalculations, Francis agrees to work for him, too, unbeknownst to Rachel. Mayhem ensues. For instance with Alfie (Matt Alfano), an 86 year-old waiter with a pacemaker. Mr. Alfano shakes his whole body while carrying trays, and handles pratfalls like no other.

Funny, and Little Else

There are many, many more hijinks in this stellar production than can be described here. Director Chris Abraham and his team, including Movement Director Alexis Milligan and Fight Director John Stead, among many others, do an outstanding job with this very complex, very physical brash and brassy farce.

The Shaw production of One Man, Two Guvnors hits every mark it attempts to make. There is no deeper meaning, no effort to make us think. It is just side-splittingly funny and asks no more of its audience than we join in the fun.