Picture Credit score The Oregon Heart for the Arts
A contemporary tackle a hilariously basic Italian play. Can this servant serve two masters and deceive them each efficiently?
Oregon Heart for the Arts presents The Servant of Two Masters written by Carlo Goldini and directed by Brendan McMahon. The present included a forged of SOU college students: Jennie Babisch because the titular character Truffaldino; Nicole Villavicencio Gonzalez as the primary grasp Beatrice; Keigin Tosh because the second grasp Florindo; Tim Turner as Pantalone; Aleeyah Enriquez as Clarice, Pantalones daughter; Chloe Boyan as Smeraldina, Clarice’s servant; Kyler Deanda as Silvio, Clarice’s lover; Johnathan Value as II Dottore, Silvio’s father; Thilini Dissanayake as Brighella, the chef at an inn; and Hayley Kennen, AnaLea Varni, and Samuel because the Zannis. The play centered round a perpetually famished lackey who schemes to double their wages by serving two masters concurrently whereas going to excessive lengths to hide their ruse.
This play takes the basic Italian comedy and locations components of the script into trendy phrases. The themes of the unique play are dealt with with a bit of contemporary aptitude, primarily with how they deal with pronouns. Within the authentic, the lead harlequin, Truffaldino, is a person however with SOU’s manufacturing they modified Truffles’ pronouns to they/them to suit the actor. They embody a number of trendy takes on the play, particularly with pronouns, with Truffaldino asking one of many different characters, the prepare dinner, what their pronouns had been, to which they responded with the specter of making Truffaldino’s pronouns was/had been. This comedic approach of dealing with pronouns inadvertently makes a press release on how totally different folks deal with pronouns at present, but additionally having respect for folks’s pronouns all through the play.
The actors additionally made a number of allusions to trendy instances by different jokes. At one level Truffaldino made a point out of social distancing and a joke that “a minimum of a few of us are carrying masks” after which one other assertion about procuring in Medford. Additionally they made a reference to Girl Gaga’s track “Unhealthy Romance” whereas two servants had been making an attempt to learn whereas being fully illiterate. The thought of together with up to date references within the script was extremely attention-grabbing and it stored me on the sting of my seat all through the play.
Going into the play, I had no concept what to anticipate. I had by no means heard of this play earlier than and simply assumed it might be a standard model of the play, with no trendy additions. I additionally didn’t count on the play to open with no dialogue between the three Zannis, after which a track telling us the place the exits had been, to remain seated and benefit from the present. The transition from track to the primary scene was very easy and once they went to intermission, that they had one other track that informed the viewers how lengthy the intermission could be.
The play runs for 1 hour and 50 minutes with a ten minute intermission. Whereas many assume that it’s a lengthy length, the quantity of comedy and laughter that circulates all through the play makes it very enjoyable and definitely worth the time.
A word on the scene that’s proper earlier than intermission is required: it is a scene the place Truffaldino makes an attempt to serve their two masters dinner, and the quantity of effort and time that went into this scene is immaculate. Truffaldino needed to catch meals coming from over the set they usually did so splendidly.
There are nonetheless extra reveals for Servant.
- Thursday, March 3, 2022 at 8pm
- Friday, March 4, 2022 at 8pm
- Saturday March 5, 2022 at 8pm
- Sunday, March 6, 2022 at 2pm
Right here is the hyperlink to tickets!