Pity the man who just has too much work to do, the fellow who can’t do right for doing wrong. Such a hardworking, honest grafter is the unlikely hero of this year’s junior play, The Servant of Two Masters, which was performed over two nights this week.
Truffaldino Bottachio, a charming, illiterate itinerant, whose only goal in life is to get a decent meal, finds himself caught in the most unlikely of confusions and must use what little wit he possesses, along with a good dose of luck, to secure employment, his dinner and the hand of the lovely Smeraldina in marriage.
The plot follows Truffaldino as he finds himself in the employ of two different masters, each recently arrived in Venice. Along the way he encounters the luckless Clarice, snatched away from her lover Silvio by the arrival of Federigo Rasponi, a former fiancé thought to be dead.
Will Clarice be reunited with her lover, and will the mystery of Federigo’s identity be revealed, and will Truffaldino navigate this treacherous passage? Of course they all will, but not without serious mishap, duels, broken hearts and stolen trifles along the way.
Carlo Goldoni’s lively, knockabout farce was performed with real style by a cast of young Epsom actors. Dan Richardson gave a bravura account of the belaboured Truffaldino, with fine support from Seb Flatau, Tom Booker and Miles Bingham. Issy Rosen was uncannily realistic as the sulky teenager Clarice, including an impressive display of histrionics, and was effectively foiled by Emily Shanks’ formidable, irascible Dr Lombardi. Smeraldina calls for a degree of knowing cynicism about the ways and wiles of the male sex and Becca Montaut pulled this off admirably.
Heather Correia-Guntert deserves special mention for a commanding performance as Federigo. Trying to keep a level head amongst all these fools were Emma Hibbitt as the landlady, the put-upon porters, Anna Vakht and Anne Yashnikova, and the waiters Charles Atkins and Bea Rextrew.
The Servant of Two Masters is reliant on quick verbal wit and physical comedy for its humour and the production, skilfully directed by Eric Huxter, supported by Clare Jeens, Emily Oulton, Tim Lazarus and Ed Dennis, brought out its full potential.
The scene in which Truffaldino must serve both his masters’ dinners simultaneously was a riot of movement and confusion and Mr Huxter’s version of the script was full of lively humour. It was clear that the whole cast was having great fun performing it.
This was a hugely enjoyable piece of theatre, and it is to the actors’ great credit that they made such good sense of what is at heart a deeply silly and highly improbable story. This was a young cast, but there was an impressive array of talent on display in every quarter.