|
Regional Reviews: San Francisco One Man, Two Guvnors Also see Richard's reviews of Mount Misery and Jeffery Brian Adams at Feinstein's, Jeanie's review of Exit, Pursued by a Bear and Patrick's review of Mary Poppins
The action has been moved to 1962 Brighton, England, and is a combination of farce, music-hall entertainment, pantomime and, yes, audience participation. The cast of characters is full of classic comedy types. During the two and half hours there is a quartet called the Craze (Casey Hurt, Mike McGraw, Marcus Högsta, Andrew Niven) that set the mood with chipper songs by Grant Olding. They play as the audience enters the theatre and during the intermission and scene changes, with an occasional character joining them to sing or play a crazy instrument. The plot is complicated, as all farces are. It's about a wily but easily jumbled servant named Francis (Dan Donohue), who arranges to work for two employers. One is an upper class twit named Stanley Stubbers (William Connell) and the other is the ingenious Rachel Crabbe (Helen Sadler), who is in mostly in male drag disguised as her twin brother Roscoe, who has been murdered by Stanley. I told you it's complicated. Now the two "guvnors" are in love with each other and both are on the lam from the law. Neither is aware that they are in the same town, much less that they are employing the same man as their ineffective minder. From there on, the play twists in many directions as Francis tries to keep the two employers from meeting each other. To make matters worse this guy has not eaten in over 17 hours and he is famished. The first act ends in a hotel and involves a wild-eyed, jittery 87-year-old waiter Alfie (Ron Campbell), with Francis having to serve his bosses a seven course meal in separate rooms without one knowing the whereabouts of the other. This is a side-splitting scene. Act two really never quite scales the same comic heights of the first act. Francis discusses his impetus with the audience and he transfers his craving for food to love, in the form of a shapely bookkeeper named Dolly. Of course, all's well that ends well. Dan Donohoe, with the Oregon Shakespeare Company for many seasons, is a master clown. As Francis, his riotous monologues to the audience about his bedeviling hunger and growing slip-ups are so much funnier in his British accent, which combines melancholy self-pity with a certain jolliness. His spur-of-the-moment interaction with members of the audience is amazing. The rest of the large cast are marvelous, especially Claire Warden as the curvy bookkeeper Dolly, William Connell, who gives a wonderful Monty Python type performance as the upper-class twit Stanley, and Brad Culver, uproarious as the ostentatious young actor Alan. Ron Campbell steals every scene with his riotous antics as the old waiter and his mastery of pratfalls, Danny Scheie as the headwaiter Gareth gives an entertaining pitch perfect performance, and Sarah Moser is wonderful as the air-headed Pauline. Rounding out the cast are John-David Keller as a lawyer, Gerry McIntyre who plays the owner of a pub, Helen Sadler as Rachael, and Robert Sicular as Pauline's father Charlie, all giving first-rate comic performances. One Man, Two Guvnors runs through June 21st, 2015, at the Roda Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2015 Addison Street, Berkeley. For tickets call 510-647-2949 or visit www.berkeleyrep.org. Coming up next is Anna Deavere Smith in Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education The California Chapter opening on July 14 for three weeks only.
|
