Commedia dell’arte British style

British stage directors have been busy exploring how to recreate the broader comedy and farce required by dramatists of the long past.

Though far from slim, Corden amazes us with his agility which makes him a very worthy successor of the 18th century Truffaldino- Paul Xuereb

In Malta we have seen the Globe Theatre’s productions of Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which farther shores of extravagant laughter are explored, sometimes to my mind a little too much.

Now the audience viewing the National Theatre of London’s One Man, Two Guvnors, a work by Richard Bean based on the 18th century Italian dramatist Carlo Goldoni’s Il Servo di Due Padroni (St James Cavalier cinema) can see Nicholas Hytner creating an uproarious version of the commedia dell’arte.

The play is set in Brighton, England, in 1963, and a good many characters belong to the city’s shady society. Francis Henshall (the remarkable James Corden) however, penetrates this circle accidentally.

He has lost his job and is penniless, very hungry, and looking desperately for a job. Through sheer luck he suddenly finds two jobs, one for the seemingly small-time criminal Roscoe and the other for the upper-class, snobbish and somewhat aggressive Stanley.

What Francis does not know is that Roscoe is really Rachel (Jemima Rooper) pretending to be her dead identical twin brother, killed not so long before by her lover, that same Stanley (Oliver Chris) who is Francis’ second boss, unbeknown to Rachel/Roscoe.

This farcical comedy is mainly about Francis’s desperate attempts to cope with the instructions of both bosses, also to satisfy his always immense hunger, and lastly to team up with the sexy and good-looking Dolly (Suzy Toase).

Goldoni and Bean provide Francis with all sorts of difficulties and problems to be solved so Francis can put off the moment when his irregular service in the employment of people with conflicting needs is discovered.

He may be clever but he can also get confused, as when he delivers to Stanley a letter addressed to Rachel and does the same for Rachel, or when he delivers a big sum of money to the wrong person.

The most famous scene in the play shows Francis serving a meal to both his guvnors, seated in different rooms, and at the same time delightedly serving good portions of the food to himself.

This scene is largely Goldoni, and I have seen it done most entertainingly by an Italian performer, but in this production Corden cannot easily be surpassed for speed, effrontery and sheer joy of living.

Bean, however, has added to the farcical effectiveness of this scene by adding to the cast a waiter (an amazing Tom Edden) who is very advanced in years, extremely doddery and not very able to control his gestures, whose disasters when carrying food are hilarious.

The production follows the commedia dell’arte tradition by involving members of the audience (or actors planted in the audience) thus adding a degree of panto-like fun to the performance. Corden keeps up a constant contact with the audience, and the audience responds delightedly, conniving approvingly at his continual dishonesties, and applauding his physical agility and quick-wittedness.

Though far from slim, Corden amazes us with his agility which, when added to his great range of mainly comical expressions, makes him a very worthy successor of the 18th century Truffaldino.

Corden certainly dominates, but there are no weak members of the cast. Suzy Toase’s Dolly, intelligent and witty, cannot but be impressed with the way in which Francis manages to solve problems and by his frankness in showing he fancies her.

The two leading men are more comical than Goldoni’s text suggests. Oliver Chris’s Stanley does not hide from the audience his overweening self-centredness, a quality that clearly appeals to Jemima Rooper’s Rachel who may also be fascinated by the hairy chest and back Stanley reveals to us at one point.

Her discovery that Stanley, whom she longs for, is actually before her, and that she no longer needs to keep up her disguise as Roscoe gives a fresh lustre to the kind of scene so familiar in farcical comedy.

Rachel’s impersonation of her dear brother Roscoe leads her to insist on her engagement with Pauline (Claire Lams) whom Roscoe had promised to marry, but Pauline is now in love with Alan Dangle, an aspiring actor who is unable to separate real life from acting and cannot resist striking absurdly histrionic poses all the time.

Daniel Rigby makes the most of the part and is a hit. Pauline is not much of a part, but Lams makes us stand up and notice in her impassioned speech towards the end. Of course, Pauline and Alan have a happy ending like everybody else.

The production is introduced by a skiffle group led by Grant Olding which appears again and again to provide music by Olding between some of the scenes.

I imagine a good many members of the audience were enjoying these fairly frequent short musical intervals, but older people might think there are too many of them.