A SERVANT TO TWO MASTER by Carlo Goldoni
Adapted by Lee Hall
Venue: Milton Keynes 2000
Company: Young Vic/Royal Shakespeare Company
Directed by Tim Supple

Cast

SILVIO	Sendhil Ramamurthy
PANTALOON	Paul Bentall
CLARICE	Niky Wardley
DR LOMBARDI	Sam Dastor
SMERALDINA	Catherine Tate
BRIGH ELLA	Rod Arthur
TRUFFALDINO	Jason Watkins
BEATRICE	Rachel Sanders
FLORINDO	Steve Toussant
WAITER PORTERS	Susanna Northern Patrick Marlowe Graeme Eton

Review

Covent Garden Life: Marion Cotter    
On transfer to the Albery theatre St Martin's Lane

What's a chap to do if he gets lousy pay and not so much as a sniff of a hot dinner? Take a second job of course - and to hell with the consequences! Such is the view of happy-go-lucky Truffaldino, hilarious hero of Goldoni's 1743 Venetian farce A Servant to Two Masters. Liberally adapted by Lee Hall (giving us a script peppered with salty swear words and references to spotted dick), it's now more of an adult panto than a period piece. The hapless Truffaldino - a cockney rascal who lives on his wits - bounces from one scrape to another as he finds himself inadvertantly working not just for lovelorn Beatrice (disguised as a man), but for her lost lover Florindo. Naturally enough, the star-crossed pair check into the same inn for the night and double entendres are soon falling thick and fast. At times balletic, cheeky and bruisingly funny, Jason Watkins gives us a masterly Truffaldino who is both comic and entertaining. The scene when he serves up a five-course dinner to both bosses - pirouetting from one room to another while surreptitiously filling his face in bowls of pasta - is a triumph of razor-sharp timing and innuendo.

Watkins' star turns - milking the play's slapstick potential with some generous ad-libbing - are backed by a uniformly strong cast. A hugely enjoyable night out and a welcome return to the West End.