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""The Servant of Two Masters", written in 1743, is expert farce."--"The New York Times"
Product Description
A Christmas pantomime with an Italian accent from the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Young Vic Company "Two wages. Two men's meals. Am I mad? Not half." Carlo Goldoni's 18th century comedy about a wily servant who gets the best of his masters by hook and crook is one of the great classic commedia dell'arte scripts of world drama. In this new, rapid fire adaptation by award winning dramatist Lee Hall, the language has been updated to now in order to give the action the fast-paced feeling of a Christmas pantomime.A cracker of a version certain to please all and fill the theatres.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Lee Hall has done a wonderful job of updating this great piece of theatre. I didn't see the recent London production of the play, but heard such good word of mouth, that I sought out this script. I am glad that I did.
Mr Hall's introduction to this edition gives a really good background to the history of the play and explains why he felt it necessary to adapt it the way he did; in essence restoring the play to it's truest form after years of being performed in versions that were at least poor, but possibibly travesties.
This is a great read but I would really like to produce it on the amateur stage in York.
The language is fast and furious as is the action and the contrivances seeming somehow natural. I like my theatre to acknowledge that it is that, and is in some way artificial and accepts a relationship with the audience using asides and the like. This play does that, but does not descend into pantomime.
The characters are richly drawn when they need to be, but needless back stories are avoided - so the play just continues to roll foreward apace.
Mistaken identity in theatre is an idea as old as the hills, but when done well, as it is here, the results are often hilarious, occassionally very moving and extremely satisfying.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a fun adaptation with some very humorous language and characterisation, which stays very close to the 1753 text thanks to Gwenda Pandolfi's literal translation, and only a few truly terrible gags which may have audiences groaning.
Lee Hall did not work directly from the Italian, although there is evidence in the text that he had studied previous translations by Dent and Turner/Lapworth, such as the in-joke concerning the trifle. He clearly has some idea of what commedia dell'arte was all about and Goldoni's reform of Italian theatre, as his introduction makes clear. However, it is a bit rich of Hall to claim to be restoring a tarnished Goldoni to his former lustre - there are always many changes made to a play script in translation, and Hall's 'A Servant To Two Masters' is no exception.
I disagree with him that Turner and Lapworth's version is a 'travesty' - Goldoni himself in his 'Note to the Reader' insists that his script is not meant to be adhered to word-for-word if the company can think of a better way of doing something, and the 1968 version includes a lot of very funny additional comic business which naturally reflects the saucy slapstick British humour of its time (Carry On, Benny Hill etc.) Such prepared improvisation is in the nature of commedia dell'arte. Furthermore, I am sure there is also plenty in Hall's version which will seem dated in a decade or two.
Finally, there are many annoying things about this methuen publication, such as the inconsistent misspelling of Truffaldino's surname (is it supposed to be Battocchio, Batocchio or Battacchio?) Then there's the unnecessary change in Pantaloon's surname (why replace the traditional de Bisognosi with Parsimoni?), the appalling and immensely irritating punctuation throughout (lack of question marks, overabundance of full stops and sometimes commas - sometimes even added superfluously into Latin expressions copied directly from the original: "concencus et non concubitus, facit virum"), inexplicable insistence on rewriting Gallicisms as if they were English words ('on mass', 'toot sweet') and other baffling choices of orthography (we have Bollocks and Bollox on the same page - why?). In fact the profanities could easily be done away with altogether (none exist in the original).
But despite Hall's best efforts to exasperate the educated reader, if this text is used by an intelligent director with a talented cast, it can produce a very entertaining show.
Lee Hall did not work directly from the Italian, although there is evidence in the text that he had studied previous translations by Dent and Turner/Lapworth, such as the in-joke concerning the trifle. He clearly has some idea of what commedia dell'arte was all about and Goldoni's reform of Italian theatre, as his introduction makes clear. However, it is a bit rich of Hall to claim to be restoring a tarnished Goldoni to his former lustre - there are always many changes made to a play script in translation, and Hall's 'A Servant To Two Masters' is no exception.
I disagree with him that Turner and Lapworth's version is a 'travesty' - Goldoni himself in his 'Note to the Reader' insists that his script is not meant to be adhered to word-for-word if the company can think of a better way of doing something, and the 1968 version includes a lot of very funny additional comic business which naturally reflects the saucy slapstick British humour of its time (Carry On, Benny Hill etc.) Such prepared improvisation is in the nature of commedia dell'arte. Furthermore, I am sure there is also plenty in Hall's version which will seem dated in a decade or two.
Finally, there are many annoying things about this methuen publication, such as the inconsistent misspelling of Truffaldino's surname (is it supposed to be Battocchio, Batocchio or Battacchio?) Then there's the unnecessary change in Pantaloon's surname (why replace the traditional de Bisognosi with Parsimoni?), the appalling and immensely irritating punctuation throughout (lack of question marks, overabundance of full stops and sometimes commas - sometimes even added superfluously into Latin expressions copied directly from the original: "concencus et non concubitus, facit virum"), inexplicable insistence on rewriting Gallicisms as if they were English words ('on mass', 'toot sweet') and other baffling choices of orthography (we have Bollocks and Bollox on the same page - why?). In fact the profanities could easily be done away with altogether (none exist in the original).
But despite Hall's best efforts to exasperate the educated reader, if this text is used by an intelligent director with a talented cast, it can produce a very entertaining show.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
this was so great that after reading the script i went out to see it to relive the humour, and the use of slapstick comedy and commedia dell'arte, my advice would be read it and if you have, go and see it!!!
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