One Man Two Guvnors

Congratulations to Phoenix Players on a first class production of “One Man, Two Guvnors” by Richard Bean, an adaptation of “Servant of Two Masters”, a comedy written in 1743 by Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni.

Francis Henshall (played by Mark Hague) becomes separately employed by two men: Roscoe Crabbe, a gangster, and Stanley Stubbers, (Lee Sanderson) an upper class twit.  Francis tries to keep the two from meeting, however                       , things start to get complicated when Roscoe is killed by Stanley, because he is in love with Roscoe’s twin sister Rachel (Tracey Briggs). She arrives disguised as her twin brother but Stanley doesn’t realize that it is Rachel.                                          Of course, things start to get even more complicated when local mobster Charlie the Duck Clench (Mark Sanderson) has arranged for his daughter Pauline (Yasmin Angove-Middleton) to marry Roscoe. But she is already engaged                              to Alan, (Gregg Muscroft) an “over the top” amateur actor. While all this is happening Francis is doing his best to not allow his employers to meet. At the  end of the day, all Francis wants is to go on holiday with his true love                                   Dolly (Sue Briggs) and a plate of fish & chips. As they say “what a tangled web we weave as when we first do deceive”. However, there is a happy ending for everyone and all is well.

This production ticked all the boxes. It was well directed, with a very brilliant cast, and moved along with great speed. This is required in all comedies, especially when the plot moves along from one story line to another.   

Mark Hague, who took on the very demanding role of Francis Henshall, was outstanding, with copious amounts of dialogue, action and eating - all at the same time, very rarely leaving the stage or even coming-up for breath                            . Likewise his rapport with the audience was brilliant.   

I must also mention Tracey Briggs, who not only marvellously directed the production, but stepped in at the last minute to take on the role of Rachel Crabbe.

Each and every member of the cast, 12 in total, excelled in their characters and gave very confident performances. The clarity, speed and the articulation of the dialogue was just amazing. It would be unfair of me to                                              mention them  all individually but all of you deserved the wonderful applause you received at the end of the evening. 

Congratulations again to everyone involved with this production. It was very well thought out not only with direction of the cast, but the very quick scene and prop changes by the backstage team and the cast

On behalf of Les Smith and myself thank you for the hospitality and a great evening. It was so good to get back into the theatre after such a long time and watch a wonderful production. 

 

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