A Servant To Two Masters (Modern Plays)

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A co-production by the RSC and the Young Vic Theatre Company, this adaptation was first performed in 1999. And Pia Saunders-Patel revelled in her two comedic roles, visibly and comfortably relishing her lines as the (Columbine) maid (“Oh, for God’s sake, just suffer for a while! 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. The next morning, Arthur wakes in his chambers to find a stranger wearing similar clothes to Merlin. In Camelot, Gaius again extracts the snake from Merlin's neck as Gwen enters the room, saying that Arthur is looking for him.

Brighella, the innkeeper, recognizes Beatrice, despite her disguise, but promises to keep her identity a secret and becomes her accomplice in her mission. It was made for a production that starred Tommy Steele as Truffaldino, and is entirely in the modern idiom. This is a lively and intelligent new adaptation by Lee Hall, with a modern free text complete with extra bawdy and juicy jokes, that loses nothing of the pathos from the original.

The second is from Rachel Saunders whose cross-dressing Beatrice has all the sexy appeal of a panto principal boy and all the tragic desperation of a Juliet. However, her servant, Truffaldino, enters into the pay of Florindo, and struggles to keep his two lives and masters separate.

The Servant of Two Masters (Italian: Il servitore di due padroni) is a comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1746.

Beatrice's plans work perfectly at first -- until her sneaky servant Truffaldino also takes Florindo on as his master in a scheme to make extra money. The story revolves around Cowley, who appears to steal a secret nerve gas to sell to a foreign power. Apparently what happened was that she appeared in the 1978 film Golden Lady which was an all-female spoof on James Bond.

Unlike Truffaldino, he is sometimes depicted as having risen through the ranks of servitude to become an innkeeper or tavern owner, as in The Servant of Two Masters. Their actions are laughably melodramatic, and they are often driven to the point of hysteria if they are kept apart from each other. Truffaldino, the titular ‘Servant of Two Masters’ in Goldoni’s farce, is an offshoot of Arlecchino (or in English, Harlequin). Truffaldino accepts Florindo’s offer, determining that if he is clever he can serve two masters and easily double his income.At the Young Vic, audience and actors were engaged in a complicity of enjoyment, but at the New Ambassadors that has somewhat evaporated. All that is required is “a real enthusiasm to experiment” – and that enthusiasm really shone through in this first production under director Paul Simpson, Participation Manager. What we got was one villain sustaining light damage to his anorak, which was enough to scare his colleagues into surrendering! 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. Arthur rebukes Merlin for his two-day absence and sentences him to learn how to be a proper manservant from George.