One Man, Two Guvnors – Octagon Theatre
After a critically acclaimed National Theatre premiere, a UK tour, an award-winning West End transfer and a Broadway run which kickstarted James Corden’s stratospheric stateside success, there can’t have been many people left who hadn’t seen the original production of One Man, Two Guvnors.
And then the pandemic struck. Another 200,000 tuned in to the NT Live performance. One of the theatrical highlights of lockdown.
It’s a brave programmer then who opts to revive Richard Bean’s adaptation of Goldoni’s commedia dell'arte classic The Servant of Two Masters. It’s a gamble that’s largely paid off.
For anyone unaware, 1700s Venice has been replaced by 1963 Brighton. That aside, Bean’s adaptation is surprisingly faithful. Both to the plot and themes of upper-class stupidity, gender equa...
