THEATER
Theater for a New Audience
The Servant of Two Masters - Carlo Goldoni
“★★★★ Elegant… Energetic… Broadly colorful…
masks, songs and snatches of anachronistic improvisation.” – Adam Feldman, Time Out New York
“Mr. Epp’s frenetic, knockabout performance is IMPECCABLE.” – Charles Isherwood, The New York Times
“Christopher Bayes’s much-lauded ‘Servant,’ had its premiere in 2010 at Yale Repertory Theater and has played across the country since then. The critic Peter Marks, in The Washington Post,
described the show as ‘deliriously happy-making,’ taking pains to note that it is not the sort of ‘calcified frivolity’ that so often gives commedia a bad name.” – Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times
“The Servant of Two Masters is a wondrous thing, a campy, happy romp.” – Joel Benjamin, TheaterPizzazz
“Hilarious, rowdy…Raucous entertainment.” – Lore Croghan, Brooklyn Daily Eagle
“Delightful… Screamingly funny… A comic masterpiece! The Servant of Two Masters is thoroughly enjoyable and deliriously well-performed.” – The Brooklyn Paper
The Servant of Two Masters is a timeless 18th century Italian comic masterpiece by Carlo Goldoni about a servant so hungry he takes on two jobs to survive. In this contemporary American adaptation, no two performances are the same. The actors improvise along with the written text in the style of commedia dell’arte. Masks, playful costumes, and original music by Aaron Halva and Christopher Curtis create a fresh, bold, surprising event.
Theatre for a New Audience is thrilled to present the New York Premiere of this award-winning Servant, first produced in 2010 by Yale Repertory Theatre and toured nationally. Goldoni’s classic inspired the 2012 Broadway hit, One Man, Two Guvnors.
The heart of this Servant is its acting and staging. Steven Epp, who plays the title role, and director Christopher Bayes, have honed a “brilliant, new-vaudeville style” that is “smart” and “unhinged” (The New York Times). The entire cast displays fresh and vibrant comedic talents and includes TFANA veterans Liam Craig, (The Killer), Andy Grotelueschen (The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew,Cymbeline), and Emily Young (The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Cymbeline), as well as Allen Gilmore, Eugene Ma, Orlando Pabotoy, Adina Verson, and Liz Wisan.
Servant of Two Masters
Servant of Two Masters
"I'd like to see how I'll manage to serve two masters." Illustration from The Complete Comedies of Carlo Goldoni (1830)
Written by Carlo Goldoni
Date premiered 1746
Original language Italian
Genre Commedia dell'Arte
Servant of Two Masters (Italian: Il servitore di due padroni) is a comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1746. Goldoni originally wrote the play at the request of actor Antonio Sacco, one of the great Truffaldinos in history. His earliest drafts had large sections that were reserved for improvisation, but he revised it in 1753 in the version that exists today. The play draws on the tradition of the earlier Italian Commedia dell'arte.
Plot
The play opens with the introduction of Beatrice, a woman who has traveled to Venice disguised as her dead brother in search of the man who killed him, Florindo, who is also her lover. Her brother forbade her to marry Florindo, and died defending his sister's honor. Beatrice disguises herself as Federigo, (her dead brother), so that he can collect dowry money from Pantaloon (also spelled Pantalone), the father of Clarice, her brother's betrothed. She wants to use this money to help her lover escape, and to allow them to finally wed. But thinking that Beatrice's brother was dead, Clarice has fallen in love with another man, Silvio, and the two have become engaged. Interested in keeping up appearances, Pantalone tries to conceal the existence of each from the other.
Beatrice's servant, the exceptionally quirky and comical Truffaldino, is the central figure of this play. He is always complaining of an empty stomach, and always trying to satisfy his hunger by eating everything and anything in sight. When the opportunity presents itself to be servant to another master (Florindo, as it happens) he sees the opportunity for an extra dinner.
As Truffaldino runs around Venice trying to fill the orders of two masters, he is almost uncovered several times, especially because other characters repeatedly hand him letters, money, etc. and say simply "this is for your master" without specifying which one. To make matters worse, the stress causes him to develop a temporary stutter, which only arouses more problems and suspicion among his masters. To further complicate matters, Beatrice and Florindo are staying in the same hotel, and are searching for each other.
In the end, with the help of Clarice and Smeraldina (Pantalone's feisty servant, who is smitten with Truffaldino) Beatrice and Florindo finally find each other, and with Beatrice exposed as a woman, Clarice is allowed to marry Silvio. The last matter up for discussion is whether Truffaldino and Smeraldina can get married, which at last exposes Truffaldino's having played both sides all along. However, as everyone has just decided to get married, Truffaldino is forgiven. Truffaldino asks Smeraldina to marry him.
The most famous set-piece of the play is the scene in which the starving Truffaldino tries to serve a banquet to the entourages of both his masters without either group becoming aware of the other, while desperately trying to satisfy his own hunger at the same time.
The play opens with the introduction of Beatrice, a woman who has traveled to Venice disguised as her dead brother in search of the man who killed him, Florindo, who is also her lover. Her brother forbade her to marry Florindo, and died defending his sister's honor. Beatrice disguises herself as Federigo, (her dead brother), so that he can collect dowry money from Pantaloon (also spelled Pantalone), the father of Clarice, her brother's betrothed. She wants to use this money to help her lover escape, and to allow them to finally wed. But thinking that Beatrice's brother was dead, Clarice has fallen in love with another man, Silvio, and the two have become engaged. Interested in keeping up appearances, Pantalone tries to conceal the existence of each from the other.
Beatrice's servant, the exceptionally quirky and comical Truffaldino, is the central figure of this play. He is always complaining of an empty stomach, and always trying to satisfy his hunger by eating everything and anything in sight. When the opportunity presents itself to be servant to another master (Florindo, as it happens) he sees the opportunity for an extra dinner.
As Truffaldino runs around Venice trying to fill the orders of two masters, he is almost uncovered several times, especially because other characters repeatedly hand him letters, money, etc. and say simply "this is for your master" without specifying which one. To make matters worse, the stress causes him to develop a temporary stutter, which only arouses more problems and suspicion among his masters. To further complicate matters, Beatrice and Florindo are staying in the same hotel, and are searching for each other.
In the end, with the help of Clarice and Smeraldina (Pantalone's feisty servant, who is smitten with Truffaldino) Beatrice and Florindo finally find each other, and with Beatrice exposed as a woman, Clarice is allowed to marry Silvio. The last matter up for discussion is whether Truffaldino and Smeraldina can get married, which at last exposes Truffaldino's having played both sides all along. However, as everyone has just decided to get married, Truffaldino is forgiven. Truffaldino asks Smeraldina to marry him.
The most famous set-piece of the play is the scene in which the starving Truffaldino tries to serve a banquet to the entourages of both his masters without either group becoming aware of the other, while desperately trying to satisfy his own hunger at the same time.
Themes
One of the main themes of this play is found in the character development of Truffaldino. As mentioned above, he is always hungry. That is his action: it is what he wants in the play. Yet, the play does not end when he finally gets a meal and a full belly; it ends with a kiss shared between him and Smeraldina. Truffaldino, it is implied, was hungry for love. Themes of confrontation between young and old are presented through confrontations between Dr Lombardi and his son, Silvio, as well as Pantalone with his daughter, Clarice.
One of the main themes of this play is found in the character development of Truffaldino. As mentioned above, he is always hungry. That is his action: it is what he wants in the play. Yet, the play does not end when he finally gets a meal and a full belly; it ends with a kiss shared between him and Smeraldina. Truffaldino, it is implied, was hungry for love. Themes of confrontation between young and old are presented through confrontations between Dr Lombardi and his son, Silvio, as well as Pantalone with his daughter, Clarice.
Characterization
The characters of the play are taken from the Italian Renaissance theatre style Commedia dell'arte. In classic commedia tradition, an actor learns a stock character (usually accentuated by a mask) and plays it to perfection throughout his career. The actors had a list of possible scenarios, each with a very basic plot, called a canovaccio, and throughout would perform physical-comedy acts known as lazzi (Italian lazzo, a joke or witticism) and the dialogue was improvised.
The characters of the play are taken from the Italian Renaissance theatre style Commedia dell'arte. In classic commedia tradition, an actor learns a stock character (usually accentuated by a mask) and plays it to perfection throughout his career. The actors had a list of possible scenarios, each with a very basic plot, called a canovaccio, and throughout would perform physical-comedy acts known as lazzi (Italian lazzo, a joke or witticism) and the dialogue was improvised.
This was our artistic bonus as we rode the subway home from Brooklyn.
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