Theater

Plot synopsisThe play opens with the introduction of Beatrice, a woman who has traveled to Venice disguised as her dead brother in search of the man who killed him: her lover, Florindo!! Her brother forbade her to marry Florindo, and died defending her honor. Beatrice disguises herself as him so that she can collect dowry money from Pantalone, the father of Clarice, her brother's betrothed. She wants to use this money to help her lover escape, and to allow them to finally wed. But thinking that Beatrice's brother was dead, Clarice has fallen in love with another man, Silvio, and the two have become engaged. Interested in keeping up appearances, Pantalone tries to conceal the existence of each from the other.

Beatrice's servant, the exceptionally quirky and comical Truffaldino, is the central figure of this play. He is always complaining of an empty stomach, and always trying to fulfill his hunger by eating everything and anything in sight. In one famous scene, it is implied that he eats Beatrice's beloved cat. When the opportunity presents itself to be servant to another master (Florindo, as it happens) he sees the opportunity for an extra dinner.

As Truffaldino runs around Venice trying to fill the orders of two masters, he is almost uncovered several times, especially because other characters repeatedly hand him letters, money, etc. and say simply "this is for your master" without specifying which one. To make matters worse, the stress causes him to develop a temporary stutter, which only arouses more problems and suspicion among his masters. To further complicate matters, Beatrice and Florindo are staying in the same hotel, and are searching for each other.

In the end, with Clarice's and Smeraldina's (Pantalone's feisty servant, who is smitten with Truffaldino) help, Beatrice and Florindo finally find each other, and with Beatrice exposed as a woman, Clarice is allowed to marry Silvio. The last matter up for discussion is whether Truffaldino and Smeraldina can get married, which at last exposes Truffaldino's having played both sides all along. However, as everyone has just decided to get married, Truffaldino is forgiven. Truffaldino asks Smeraldina to marry him.

The most famous set-piece of the play is the scene in which a starving Truffaldino tries to serve a banquet to the entourages of both his masters without either group becoming aware of the other, while desperately trying to satisfy his own hunger at the same time.

ThemesOne of the main themes of this play is found in the character development of Truffaldino. As mentioned above, he is always hungry. That is his action: it is what he wants in the play. Yet, the play does not end when he finally gets a meal and a full belly; it ends with a kiss shared between him and Smeraldina. Truffaldino, it is implied, was hungry for love. CharacterizationThe characters of the play are taken from the Italian Renaissance theatre style Commedia dell'arte. In classic commedia tradition, an actor learns a stock character (usually accentuated by amask) and plays it to perfection throughout his career. The actors had a list of possible scenarios, each with a very basic plot, called a canovaccio, and throughout would perform physical-comedy acts known as lazzis and the dialogue was improvised.[1] CharactersThe characters from 'A Servant to Two Masters' are derived from "stock characters" used incommedia dell'arte. True commedia dell'arte is more or less improvised without a script, so Servant of Two Masters is not true commedia. The stock characters were used as guides for the actors improvising.

Pantalone: The old, rich, lecherous man with a single motive of money.

"In Servant to two Masters", 'Pantaloon' originates in 'Pantalone'.

A zanni is a tricky servant, in "A Servant to Two Masters", 'Truffaldino' is the 'zanni'.

Brighella is the only character whose stereotype has not been translated to the play. In this play, Brighella can be played in several different ways, all of which are open to interpretation. Most commonly, he's portrayed as the 'jolly, enterprising servant' or something of a Jack Falstaff-esque character.

The other characters have all been taken from the stock characters of commedia dell'arte:

• Florindo = Capitano
• Smeraldina = Columbina
• Il Dottore = Doctor Lombardi
• The Lovers = Silvio and Clarice - Florindo and Beatrice
• Brighella = See above

Performance historyGoldoni originally wrote the play in 1745 at the request of actor Antonio Sacco, one of the great Truffaldinos in history. Goldoni's earliest drafts had large sections that were reserved for improvisation, but he revised it in 1753 in the version that exists today[2].

One of the most successful recent production was of Lee Hall's translation by the Young Vic(2000), for which Jason Watkins received an Olivier Award nomination for his performance as Truffaldino. Other notable English adaptations have been written by Edward J. Dent, Tom Cone for the Stratford Festival, and Jon Mullich which set the action of the play in Prohibition-era Chicago(with the famous banquet scene taking place in a speakeasy)[3]. The University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee's production in 1974 was chosen as one of the ten best productions in the country, and was performed at the American College Theater Festival in Washington, DC, where the entire cast emerged from a single Volkswagon that drove onto the stage at the start of the play. A classicCommedia dell'arte production was memorably staged by the International City Theatre in Long Beach, California in 2001 and Treat Williams once played Truffaldino at the Cincinnati Playhouse.

Servant of Two Masters was also performed at the Colorado State Thespian Conference at theWells Fargo Theatre in Denver, Colorado on December 10, 2010. Because the audience was comprised mostly of High School Theatre Students, the actors decided to poke fun at the goings on backstage. Also, the director would storm onstage to berate the actors and explain the at times complicated plot.[4][5]

AdaptationsThere have been several adaptations of the play, for the cinema and for the theatre:

• Harlekijn, kies je meester (1973) (TV)[6] - a 1973 Dutch adaptation.
• Truffaldino iz Bergamo (Truffaldino from Bergamo)(1976) (TV)[7] - a 1976 Russian TV movie adaptation.
• Sluga dvukh gospod (Servant of Two Masters)(1953)[8] - a 1953 Russian adaptation.
• Sluha dvou pánů (Servant of Two Masters) (1994) ČSFD.com - 1994-present day, Czech theatrical adaptation in National Theatre, Prague. Main role impersonated Miroslav Donutil.
• A translation and adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher and Paolo Landi was give its première at Milwaukee Rep in 1999[9] and published in 2004.[10]
• Parson's Nose Productions, a professional classical theater in Los Angeles, produced Lance Davis' one hour adaptation of "Servant of Two Masters" at the Geffen Playhouse and Pasadena Playhouse in 2004.
• The Oregon Shakespeare Festival adapted SERVANT to massive acclaim in its 2009 season.

ProductionsOregon Shakespeare Festival

• Directed by Tracy Young. The play watching in 25 March - 1 November.
• Truffaldino .... T
• Pantalone de Bisognosi .... David Kelly
• Dottore Lombardi .... Richard Howard
• Silvio Lombardi .... Juan Rivera LeBron
• Florindo Arestusi .... Elijah Alexander
• Brighella .... Eileen DeSandre
• Beatrice Rasponi .... Kate Mulligan
• Clarice .... Kjerstine Rose Anderson
• Smeraldina .... Elisa Bocanegra
• Waiter, Porter (Bob) .... Todd Bjurstrom
• Waiter, Porter (Jim) .... B. Trevor Hill
• Waiter, Porter (Steve) .... Samuel D. Dinkowitz

Stavovské divadlo, Prague

• Directed by Ivan Rajmont. The play had premiere at 22 September 1994 in National Theatre, Prague. They playing sixteen years (1994-2010).
• Truffaldino ..... Miroslav Donutil
• Pantalone de Bisognosi .... Karel Pospíšil
• Dottore Lombardi .... Petr Pelzer, Oldřich Vlček
• Silvio Lombardi .... Jan Bidlas, Vilém Udatný
• Florindo Aretusi .... Alexej Pyško, Jan Hájek
• Brighella .... Jan Novotný
• Beatrice Rasponi .... Miluše Šplechtová, Antonie Talacková
• Clarice .... Jana Janěková ml., Kristýna Hrušínská
• Smeraldina .... Hana Igonda Ševčíková, Jaromíra Mílová
• Waiter .... Milan Stehlík, Rudolf Stärz, Filip Rajmont

Slezské divadlo, Opava

• Directed by Patrik Bořecký. Translated by Jaroslav Pokorný. The play had premiere at 7 November 2004 in Silesian Theatre, Opava.
• Truffaldino .... Petr Vaněk
• Pantalone de Bisognosi ..... Kostas Zerdaloglu
• Dottore Lombardi .... Martin Táborský
• Silvio Lombardi .... Zdeněk Jorda
• Florindo Aretusi .... Jakub Stránský
• Brighella .... Marek Šunc
• Beatrice Rasponi .... Sabina Figarová, Kamila Srubková
• Clarice .... Veronika Senci, Blanka Fišerová
• Smeraldina .... Jana Epikaridis, Hana Vaňková
• Waiter, Porter .... Petr Klimeš

Russian Theatre

• Russian title is Sluga dvukh gospod.
• Truffaldino .... Konstantin Raykin
• Pantalone de Bisognosi .... Lev Petropavlovskiy
• Dottore Lombardi .... Igor Sorkin
• Silvio Lombardi .... Viktor Krivonos
• Florindo Aretusi .... Viktor Kostetskiy
• Brighella .... Aleksandr Bereznyak
• Beatrice Rasponi .... Valentina Kosobutskaya
• Clarice .... Yelena Driatskaya
• Smeraldina ..... Natalya Gundareva
• Captain .... Yevgeniy Tilicheyev

Městské divadlo, Brno

• Directed by Zdeněk Černín. The play had premiere at 23 September 2000 in City Theatre,Brno. 145. repeats.
• Truffaldino .... Martin Havelka
• Pantalone de Bisognosi .... Ladislav Kolář
• Dottore Lombardi .... Zdeněk Junák
• Silvio Lombardi .... Michal Nevěčný
• Florindo Aretusi .... Patrik Bořecký
• Brighella .... Zdena Herfortová
• Beatrice Rasponi .... Evelina Kachlířová
• Clarice .... Pavla Ptáčková-Vitázková
• Smeraldina .... Irena Konvalinková

Dorse House Theatre

• Directed by . The play had premiere in July, 2003.
• Truffaldino ....
• Pantalone ....
• Doctor Lombardi ....
• Brighella ....
• Silvio ....
• Florindo Aretusi ....
• Clarice ....
• Smeraldina ....
• Beatrice Rasponi ....

Waterbury, Connecticut Waterbury Arts Magnet School Directed By Mr.Shulte

Notes

1. ↑ Anna Maria Testaverde (2007) Introduzione a I canovacci della Commedia dell'Arte [1]
2. ↑ Banham (1998, 433).
3. ↑ ReviewPlays.com, "The Servant of Two Masters"
4. ↑ "Conference Schedule (page 8)".
5. ↑ "Pomona to serve up Servant at Thespian Conference".
6. ↑ IMDb.com
7. ↑ IMDb.com
8. ↑ IMDb.com
9. ↑ paololandi.it
10. ↑ Barnes and Noble

References

• Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521434378.

External links

• Photos of a production of The Servant of Two Masters
• Oregon Shakespeare Festival Website
• National Theatre in Prague
• Showcase from year 2000
• Czechoslovak Film Database from Prague's record
• Silesian Theatre Website
• City Theatre Website