Christopher gets Theatrical: Servant of Two Masters

Last week, I had the opportunity to see Servant of Two Masters at the Theater for a New Audience, which is an amazing resource in Downtown Brooklyn that offers students and people under the age of 30 to see off-Broadway Shakespearean and classic performances for $20.00 through their New Deal program. I’ll provide a quick link to the website so any readers who find themselves to be lovers of the theater can see some amazing performances for a very affordable price.

Servant of Two Masters is a comedy play by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni in the style of the commedia dell’arte originally written and performed in 1746. The commedia dell’arte is an experimental and creative style of theater that utilizes masked performers and improvisational acting without a script to inspire a fun, high-spirited and uplifting atmosphere on the early-modern stage that translates incredibly well for contemporary audiences in the Theater for a New Audience’s adaptation. Curiously, Servant of Two Masters is not traditional commedia dell’arte as it has an established script while allowing for a hearty dose of creative improvisation by the actors (and by the audience themselves, in certain cases which I will explicate on later).

pantalone
Pantalone Dei Bisognosi, dressed in the standard attire of the Italian comedy stock-character of the same name.

I went in not expecting much, having never read an Italian comedy but I found Servant of Two Masters to be highly Shakespearean in its story, character, and style. I felt the spirit of Much Ado About Nothing with its contrived marriage plots between Beatrice and Benedict/Hero and Claudio. There was a sense of Comedy of Errors in the confusion and comedic interactions between servant and master. There was even a moment where the person I went with leaned towards me and said, “This part reminds me of Romeo and Juliet.” Though Goldoni’s play is quite astounding and imaginative in its own right, I find a sense of empowerment in these recurring Shakespearean themes that make something so foreign as 18th century Italian comedy suddenly much more accessible to any audience.

Christopher Bayes, the director of the TFANA’s adaptation of Servant of Two Masters creatively challenges conceptions of the theatrical stage in this adaptation, which is highlighted by the improvisational style of the commedia dell’arte. Very contemporary and topical references to the real world are consistently made throughout the performance. As the servant Truffaldino stumbles off of stage in the beginning of the play, he accidentally hits a lever and all of the lights in the theater go out. He goes on to quip that out of the two levers, he had to pull the one lever that “plunges the world in darkness,” before making a reference to Donald Trump. The room exploded into tumultuous laughter with each reference to the tense political atmosphere in America and proceeded to then comment on the very current discussions regarding Vice-President elect Mike Pence and the performance of Hamilton. 

The most prominent moment of true improv acting during my viewing of the play happened directly after the intermission as the play began to resume and the cast poured out onto the stage. As they did so, an older gentleman was still slinking back to his seat and one of the actors on stage joked about how they’ll wait for him to get settled. The older man turns to the audience, holds his arms out and loudly declares to the rest of the room: “What? They fucking said to take a piss!”

servant-and-master
Master and Servant as they discuss payment. Previously this gold sack of coins was used by Pantalone as a reference to his testicles and he and Servant established the phrase “Anthony Weiner” as their ‘safe word’. Whenever the name was invoked the actor holding the sack of coins would throw it to the ground with great force.

Once again the room exploded and the actress on stage responded in suit but from where I was sitting I could see the actors waiting in the wings and they were keeled over and consumed with as much laughter as we were. This moment speaks to just how volatile, experimental, and creative the spirit of commedia dell’arte can be. A setting where the actor’s improv extends outward into the audience and we become part of the performance without inhabiting one of these stock-character personas that an Italian comedy like Servant of Two Masters is built upon.

beatrice
Beatrice Rasponi, disguising herself as her deceased brother who was engaged to Pantalone’s daughter. She shares many similarities to Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing

Throughout the plot of the play the actors, despite being in-character would actively acknowledge the performative aspect of the play. The servant Truffaldino absently looks up to the right in the rafters and asks, “Is that a balcony?” only to then repeat this questioning as he diverts his attention to the left and goes “Is that another balcony?” Ridiculous? Immensely so. Interestingly, a large curtain that resembles a microcosmic version of the stage and its curtains, serves as a recurring prop and major set-piece throughout the play.

The Servant of Two Masters challenges the typical perceptions of the stage where the performance of it is rooted in the audience’s ability to believe what they’re watching is real. The actors inhabit the characters they are playing and we are meant to accept this as fact. By using the comedic spirit of the genre, Servant of Two Masters artfully and skillfully creates something very new and experimental on the Theater for a New Audience’s stage that contemporary audiences can resonate with.

– Christopher LaSasso

All photographs used are the property of the Theater for a New Audience.