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‘Servant’ has one true master: Lunacy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“The Servant of Two Masters”
Grade: B
8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and in rotating repertory with “Pericles” beginning June 28. Through July 28. $15-$40. Georgia Shakespeare, Conant Performing Arts Center, Oglethorpe University, 4484 Peachtree Road N.E., Atlanta. 404-264-0020; gashakespeare.org
The verdict: In its own galaxy of silliness.
Georgia Shakespeare never misses a chance to slather on the slapshtick, the clown shtick or any other kind of shtick having to do with the ridiculous conventions of commedia dell’arte.
A couple of summers ago, the company that was born in a tent returned to its circus roots with a reinvented “Comedy of Errors” that was a raucous parade of vagabond baton-twirlers, silly sobriquets and Harpo look-alikes. Before that, it was a Fellini-esque makeover of “The Taming of the Shrew.” Now guest director Dan McCleary uses banana peels and juggling drumsticks to yuk up the classic Carlo Goldoni farce “The Servant of Two Masters.”
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, along comes this out-of-control, Buster Keaton-meets-Roy Rogers riff on the tale of double-duping Truffaldino and his pair of foolishly misguided masters, Florindo and Beatrice. The freewheeling joke-within-a-joke gets off to its dubious beginning with a gag: A so-called “traveling” group of thespians has arrived on the Oglethorpe University campus to put on a 41/2-hour production of “Richard III.”
Uh-oh. Wrong show. The Shakespeare tragedy won’t happen here until October, and tonight’s ticket-holders are psyched for “Servant.” No problem, says Master of Revels Rob Cleveland. Thus begins this impromptu-looking makeover of a story pieced together a few hundred years ago by itinerant Italian performers who were improvisational commedians in their own right.
As the night lurches forth, it’s a conceit that marries ripped-from-the-headlines references to Paris Hilton, Alec Baldwin and Michael Vick with local gags about Decatur, Buckhead, Coca-Cola and Chick-fil-A.
Confused already?
I found myself alternately wishing these cutups would just get on with the Goldoni, then surrendering to the nonsense with helpless abandon, and secretly hoping I could return for a second look. On opening night, a power failure prompted the actors to move forward into the remaining available light — and heightened the feeling that they were indeed making it up as they went along. It was the perfect setup for Cleveland to open Act 2 with a joke about “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.”
Like some kind of deranged Janus head, Chris Ensweiler’s Truffaldino was a procession of split personalities, impersonating everyone from Nixon to the current president. Long considered one of the best comedians in town, Ensweiler outdoes himself here — giving one of the most outrageous and ingenious performances of the year. Daniel May, an actor who often gets cast in serious and intense roles, is in fine form as Florindo, “a simple cowboy from Honolulu,” who galumphs onstage like Roy Rogers astride an imaginary and very loose Trigger.
Also good are Crystal Dickinson as a voluptuous Mae West-style Brighella; Carolyn Cook as the trouser-wearing Beatrice; and Zechariah Pierce as a hyper-masculine Silvio (think Johnny Drama on steroids).
If you sit on the front row, you’ll want to beware the onstage trough of water, which becomes a punch-bowl repository for airborne props and other splashy shenanigans.
A wonderfully over-the-top homage to vaudeville and silent films, this “Servant” is a collision course of clowns, lunatics and flying drumsticks — so unforgivably bad that it’s kind of swell.
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