Review: ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS Brings Laughs to Oyster Mill

Farce is one of theatre's oldest forms of comedy. It can be found in ancient Greek and Roman plays, and it fills American and English stages almost as fast as it can be written. Michael Frayn, Ken Wilbur, Paul Slade Smith, Ray Cooney and other British and American playwrights have made farce one of the most popular forms of theatre available, and one that rarely translates well to film - it must be seen live, usually, to be appreciated fully. One of its most notable forms is the Italian commedia dell'arte, which relies on certain stock characters - servants, elders, lovers. The Venetian playwright of the 1740's, Carlo Goldoni, gave the world a commedia that is translated as A SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS... or, if you're a Cockney, ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS.

If the latter title is familiar, it's because Richard Bean's 1960's-set adaptation of the Goldoni took the West End and then Broadway by storm recently, earning seven Tony nominations, among other awards nominations, and because English comedian James Corden, now of CBS's LATE SHOW, took over for his Scots predecessor, Craig Ferguson, as host of the show based upon his... well, his being James Corden.

James Corden is why ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS was successful here - this is a show that's dependent on its cast. The book itself, whether Bean or Goldoni, is paper-thin to a fault; if you've ever seen more than one farce (other than NOISES OFF or UNNECESSARY FARCE), you'll realize before the middle of the first act just how the entire show will play out. The comedy lies in how it will get to each stock point, and how perfectly the cast gets it to each of them. Character in disguise? Check. Dead but not dead? Check. Misidentified character? Check. Misidentified items? Check. It's all there; there's nothing new in the plot, but everything in the production.

At Oyster Mill Playhouse, the fun is in the cast, as Stephen Orr takes over the James Corden reins as Francis Henshall, a man both underemployed and overemployed at the same time, whose main ambitions are to not work and to get something to eat, preferably simultaneously. One of his employers might be the supposedly dead Roscoe Crabbe, who's apparently still alive thanks to his sister, Rachel, looking much like him. Rachel, playing Roscoe, is played by Rachel Lease. There's no way an audience doesn't know that Roscoe is being played by a woman in a man's suit, but the gang of misfit gangsters and their friends lolling about 1963 Brighton is completely duped, as required in the laws of farce. Lease does a nice turn, though, playing a woman trying to play a male gangster; she's got the swagger and the big personality when she's got her brother's suit on. It's just too bad that she's in love with classier crook Stanley Stubbers (Josh Lebo), who can't find her. Stubbers, inconveniently, is also the one who murdered her brother Roscoe, so it's fortunate that theirs is true love. Not surprisingly, and equally inconveniently, our friend Francis, who is considerably thicker than a brick, talks himself into working for both of them, hoping to make enough money to afford a trip to Spain for a dirty week with the luscious proto-feminist Dolly (Niki Boyer Swatski, in particularly fine form).

Since Roscoe is supposedly dead, and since Stanley supposedly killed him, and since Roscoe appears to be alive, and since Francis doesn't want anyone to know he's moonlighting with two jobs for two different criminals, in two words, chaos ensues. Rachel and Stanley contribute to the chaos as Francis attempts to keep "Roscoe" and Stanley apart, and as Stanley finds himself thinking that Rachel is dead. Meanwhile, Roscoe's fiancée Pauline (Samantha Rhoades) is devastated to hear that Roscoe may be alive, since she's pledged herself since word of his death to Alan (Stephen Hensel), a young would-be actor with more enthusiasm than talent, and possibly with a death wish, as he longs to take on the infamous and deadly Roscoe in a knife fight.

But it's farce, so all's well that ends well, and the assorted couples of the piece will manage to sort themselves out. It's the twists they take to get there, and the actors' ability to convince you of their taking those twists, that's the game. Director Craig Copas manages to keep the actors at full speed, while all of them, especially Orr and Mark Scott (playing Alfie, the elderly waiter) manage a fairly grueling physical pace. If there's one scene worth the entire price of admission, it's the end of the first act, when Francis tries to keep Roscoe and Stanley apart at lunch in the same pub, while he and waiter Alfie frantically try to serve them while keeping them from seeing each other.

Pitfalls and pratfalls are the essence of the show, and there are plenty of them. It's British slapstick on steroids, in the close setting of Oyster Mill, which makes you delightfully afraid that either Francis or Alfie will spill the soup in your lap during the characters' lunch.

If you didn't make it to New York, you can see for yourself what the fuss, and the laughter, is about. ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS plays through March 22 at Oyster Mill Playhouse. Tickets and information are available at www.oystermill.com.

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