As mentioned earlier in my review of the Shaw Festival's "My Fair Lady", the big musical has a big job this season...put bums in the seats in record numbers to erase memories of last season's artistically sound yet financially troubled season. The shortfall last season meant this season some shows had to be guaranteed winners.
"My Fair Lady" is putting bums in the seats in spades this season, and with good reason.
But offering up a laugh-a-minute supporting role this season is Richard Bean's clever yet nonsensical farce "One Man, Two Guvnors" at the Festival Theatre. Written in 2011 and based on Carlo Goldoni's "The Servant of Two Masters", this play exemplifies the British art form, if I can call it that, of uproarious farce. It takes an exceptional cast to pull off something this inane and make it seem worth your time, and thankfully Shaw has assembled an almost ideal cast here.
Director Chris Abraham should buy a lottery ticket considering how well he cast the lead here, hapless and hungry Francis Henshall, played by Peter Fernandes. In need of money and well, food, Henshall enters into employment as the servant of not one but two well-off British gentlemen (and I use the term gentlemen rather loosely here) and therefore sets off a full afternoon or evening of laughs, pratfalls and mistaken identities.
Fernandes conjures up memories of another Shaw comedic luminary in a riotous British farce, Heath Lamberts in "One For The Pot" years ago. His abilities in the fine art of physical comedy is unequalled here, as it was a generation ago with Lamberts.
It takes someone of Fernandes' calibre to rescue this romp and make you want to feel a bit of sympathy for his plight while he subjects audience members to verbal and sometimes physical abuse, in the name of low-brow comedy gold.
Supporting Fernandes is an able cast of characters, all of whom have great fun aiding and abetting him in the search for laughs. A standout in that regard is Matt Alfano as old Alfie, the server and barman at a ritzy restaurant who is at the mercy of a recalcitrant pace-maker and his body appears to be made of rubber.
The two "guvnors" in question, Martin Happer as Stanley Stubbers and Tom Rooney as Charlie Clench, each have their own collection of idiosyncrasies and challenge poor old Henshall at every turn. Clench also breaks the sartorial rule of not wearing braces with a belt in order to keep his suit pants up. The anarchy! Happer as Stubbers is a high-brow twit and plays it to the hilt.
Along with food, Henshall's other focus is on pleasing the lady he wishes to woo, winsome Dolly, played with suitable coquettishness by Kiera Sangster.
The remainder of the cast is uniformly excellent as well and the musical numbers by a skiffle band prior to the show, during and at intermission really add to the flavour of escapism in 1960s Brighton.
Is "One Man, Two Guvnors" worth your time? So long as you check your logic at the door prior to entering the theatre, yes, it is a riotous romp. The Shaw Festival delivers on the promise of serving up laughs by the boatload here and it is great fun.
"One Man, Two Guvnors" plays at the Festival Theatre until October 13th and rates a solid three out of four stars.
Enjoy your weekend!
July 26th, 2024.
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