The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2020 - Issue 27

bite theatre T his hilarious play by Richard Bean, an English adaptation of Servant of Two Masters, a 1743 Commedia dell’arte style comedy play by Ital- ian playwright Carlo Goldoni, takes place in the sunny seaside resort, Brighton, in 1963. Opening with an engagement party, local mobster Charlie ‘the Duck’ Clench (Fred Ridgeway) has arranged for his daughter Pauline (Claire Lams) to be engaged to gang- ster Roscoe Crabbe. However, she is in love with some- one else, an over-the-top amateur actor Alan Dangle (Daniel Rigby) who thinks he’s something of a Shake- spearean wonder. At first, you think it’s Pauline and Alan’s engage- ment party, who confess undying love for each other throughout the scene until Roscoe’s name is mentioned as the groom-to-be but is rumoured to have been killed. When the party members are told his bodyguard will be turning up, there is a bit of tension in the room and I must admit, having not seen the play before, I had ex- pected a big burly man to appear but instead, we have out-of-work skiffle player, Francis Henshall (James Corden), who seems a bit out of practice, fitness-wise. When Henshall announces Roscoe is indeed alive, a shockwave of horror passes through the room, and ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS