One Man, Two Guvnors – The Eccleston Theatre

Pendleton School of Theatre continues with its season of shows with their latest production of ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’, which is a hilarious slapstick play infused with a wonderful medley of stunning 1960’s songs.

The play is based on ‘The Servant of Two Masters’ by Carlo Goldoni and has been adapted by Nicholas Hytner to move away from the original setting of Italy in the 18^th Century to Brighton in 1963 – in collaboration with Richard Bean the award-winning playwright and composer/musician Grant Olding.

Pendleton School of Theatre has stayed mainly true to the successful adaptation that ran in the West End and Broadway commencing in 2011, however they have altered and added to the wonderful script and characters.

The bands ‘The Magic Five’ and ‘The Pendies’ were situated above the stage to draw your eyeline towards them singing whilst the scenery changed which was extremely effective and slick. Unfortunately, however on the opening night there was a malfunction during a scene change in Act 2 where a huge part of the moveable set fell, causing the show to pause for a period and the audience asked to exit the auditorium. Apart from this incident the scenery was exceptionally impressive and versatile making the show a visual delight.

The show is a wonderful mix of characters influenced by numerous 1970’s sitcom’s like ‘Fawlty Towers’ and ‘Carry on Films’ which made it even more entertaining for me as this is an era that I grew up in.

The storyline starts at Pauline Clench’s (Ella Speakman) and Alan Dangle’s (Aidan Scott) engagement party hosted by her Father Charlie Clench (James Grundy) where we quickly learn that Pauline had been betrothed to another named Roscoe Crabbe before his untimely murder. Charlie not wanting to waste his money after buying the sausage rolls in, throws the bash for Pauline and her new love wannabe thespian Alan but is informed shortly after the party begins that Roscoe isn’t actually dead.

The show is extremely fast paced and a hilarious farce that follows the mixed fortunes of Francis Henshall (Joel Souter), down on his luck and permanently hungry, Francis suddenly finds himself employed by two bosses first being that of newly arisen from the dead Roscoe Crabbe – who is really Roscoe’s twin sister Rachel Crabbe (Izzy Thompson) pretending to be him to claim money owed to her brother from his fiancée’s father Charlie Clench. Roscoe was killed by Rachel’s boyfriend Stanley Stubbers (Thomas Cunliffe), and she wants the money to flee with her murderous lover. Unfortunately for Francis, his second boss is Stanley, who doesn’t know Rachel is in Brighton as he is hiding from the police waiting to be reunited with his love. To prevent being discovered that he has two jobs and two guvnor’s he must keep them apart at all costs by hilarious extremes.

The show cleverly breaks the fourth wall as Francis (Joel Souter) enlists the aid of willing and unwilling audience members in his quest to serve two master’s and to also get a good meal in his own stomach which is his main quest in Act 1. Act 2 sees his pursuit of love in Dolly (Isabelle Mees) and the extremes he will go to win her over to attend a dirty week away in Spain.

The show has many twists and turns which certainly keeps you on your toes, but it is filled with the most phenomenal slapstick comedy by the cast, and Luca Cribelli’s depiction of Alfie the aging server was hilarious and had the audience belly laughing during each of his scenes.

Les William’s direction is sublime as he has created a wonderful evening of entertainment. The whole cast have clearly worked their socks off to create these unique and quirky characters that you see on the stage throughout the show.

Huge credit to the bands consisting of Brook Debio, Finn Powell, Natasha Banks, Godfrey Nketia, James Prentice, Athalia Pickford, Namumba Kawala and Daisy Garbutt for their superb vocals and musical direction, as it couldn’t be easy being so high above the stage level and they did this fearlessly and delivered a first-class performance.

I would love to mention every single member of the cast individually as they were all remarkable in their depiction of their characters and all worthy of any main stage in theatre land. However, Joel Souter’s delivery of Francis Henshall was magnificent from start to finish for which I applaud him for his high energy, engagement and physical comedy throughout.

Well done to all involved and I wish you well for the rest of the run but remember to put the picture and the diary in the correct trunk as this left me slightly confused.

Another glorious display of theatre from this wonderful school of drama, it is always a delight and honour to watch the stars of the future learning their trade in this outstanding six form college.

Reviewer: Katie Leicester

Reviewed: 5th March 2024

North West End UK Rating: