One Man, Two Guvnors

Beg, Borrow or beg some more for a ticket to see this show. It promised an incredible night of comedy. It delivered, in fact, it was better than that!

Based on The Servant With Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni, author Richard Bean's comedy masterpiece is a wickedly funny seaside farce set in Brighton in 1963.

As Director Harri Bailey so succinctly put it “the script is a work of genius filled with technical, physically demanding challenges”. Challenges she, together with her talented cast presented impeccably.

The play itself follows the story of Francis, brilliantly portrayed by Alec Voss who gets himself into a lot of trouble after taking on two jobs as both turns out to be with high profile gangsters.

All is not what it seems as events become more and more confusing for Francis, who tries desperately to stay on top of his lies and serve both Guvnors at the same time!

Alec's portrayal was amazingly physical, he worked the audience to perfection, involving them at times to great comic effect. Hats off to you sir.

He provides muscle for Guvnor One, Kath Walton as Roscoe Crabbe. He's also man-servant to Guvnor Two, boarding school graduate, Stanley Stubbers; played by Leo Capernaros. Equally demanding, equally nasty in their own way or are they?

The strong cast all brought their collective 'A' Game to the production, superb timing, slapstick, just plain funny, great really well-observed performances all round. I don't want to single anyone else out but just must mention Alfie, the doddering geriatric trainee waiter; Mark 'Noz' Norris, who was a joy to watch.

Performed across two split stages, literally putting the audience right in the middle of the chaos. The only pc part of this show was Chris Povey as the Police Constable, one of his many roles.

Fantastic evocative backing music used throughout the show, great sound, very effective lighting. I am reliably informed that No Australian's were hurt in the production of this show!

I've not seen anything quite this funny for a very long time.

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