‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ is comedic gold as part of Colorado Shakespeare Festival
We may only be halfway through the year, but my vote so far for 2023’s hardest-working actor — at least physically — has to go to Matthew Schneck for his high-speed performance in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival production of One Man, Two Guvnors. It’s an extraordinary comedic performance by an actor we’re also seeing in a much more serious role as Camillo in The Winter’s Tale this summer.
Richard Bean’s 2011 adaptation of the commedia dell’arte standard Servant of Two Masters is set in 1963 Brighton, where starving musician Francis Henshall (Schneck) stumbles into a pair of gigs helping two men of seemingly very different backgrounds. One is a gangster named Roscoe Crabbe (Emily Van Fleet, sort of — get to that in a minute) and another named Stanley Stubbers (Jacob Dresch) who’s in serious contention for Upper Class Twit of the Year.
Henshall’s desire to prevent either of the men (his “guvnors”) knowing he’s engaged with the other sets him on a frenetic, athletic series of scenes where he tries to serve them both as the convoluted plot of intertwining relationships works itself out. Schneck is dressed in a rather warm-looking baggy suit, and he’s drenched in sweat 10 minutes into the first act.
What sets this one apart from a regular ol’ farce is the addition of a live band onstage comprised of bassist Brian Bohlender, guitarist Josh Innerst and drummer Dave Wiley. Dressed in shiny, collarless Beatles suits, the trio blasts through a variety of skiffle numbers in between scenes and also serves as a peanut gallery of sorts — laughing at the action onstage and occasionally becoming part of it.
Wiley is off to the side on his kit but Bohlender and Innerst are front-and-center, likeable blokes with some great songs to sing. Innerst is also appearing in wild contrast to the jealous, deluded King Leontes he plays in The Winter’s Tale, while Bohlender is still channeling the goofy charm of the shepherd’s son in that other play.
It’s all great fun, and Tim Orr’s direction — which necessarily includes a lot of traffic management — is simply brilliant. Even on opening night, all of the mad running about, slamming doors, pratfalls and the rest were spot-on — with a bit of room here and there for improv.
The action kicks off in the flat of a Charlie the Duck, a mobster looking to marry his daughter Pauline to Roscoe. Charlie is played by veteran Colorado actor Leslie O’Carroll, whose pasted-on mustache and Danny DeVito-esque demeanor and physicality is just a hoot. Pauline is brought to life in fine fashion by Noelia Antweiler, enthusiastically playing a true blonde dipshit who “just doesn’t understand” much of anything going on around her. (Ironically, her also-incredibly-more-serious character in The Winter’s Tale is named Paulina.)
(L-R) Noelia Antweiler, Leslie O’Carroll and Christian Ray Robinson | Photo: Jennifer Koskinen
She, of course, doesn’t want to marry her father’s choice of mate and is instead enamored with would-be actor and fellow dipshit Alan (Christian Ray Robinson). When they hear Roscoe is dead, she thinks she’s off the hook — but then again, maybe he’s not.
Meanwhile on the street, Francis is doing odd jobs for Roscoe without knowing it’s really Roscoe’s twin sister Rachel dressed in his clothes. Roscoe really is dead, dispatched by Stanley (I can’t recall exactly why) who’s in love with Rachel. The two of them think they’ll have to flee to Australia because of the murder, so to get money for the trip she — as Roscoe — shakes down Charlie for some cash with Francis acting as the go-between.
Dresch is tremendously fun to watch as Stanley — a wreck of a man who nonetheless enjoys a good glass of wine and a fine meal. And that’s something he never quite gets in a raucous hotel scene with him in one room, Roscoe/Rachel in the other and a very hungry, food-stealing Francis in the middle trying to get room service to both of them with the help of super-efficient waitress Gareth (Sarah Duttlinger) and new-to-the-job octogenarian waiter Alfie. He’s played with every geezer schtick imaginable by a very funny Landon Tate Boyle, who has a field day falling down stairs, getting whacked in the face and having his externally controlled pacemaker exploited for its super-charger capabilities.
Whew! There’s also Lloyd, Allen’s father, played for all its worth by Coleman Zeigen sporting an outrageous set of sideburn-like thingies that frame his face like a pair of furry orange weasels. And just for kicks, there’s Lloyd (Stephen Tyrone Williams) in the mix, an old friend of Rachel’s who’s apparently just off the boat from Kingston; and Dolly (Laurie Keith), Charlie’s horny bookkeeper.
The first act ends with the set all but destroyed and both audience and cast somewhat exhausted. Act Two is a little less frenetic but still filled with plenty of action, surprises, music and mayhem.
For those of us eager for a break from the melting planet and dysfunctional governments surrounding us this summer, One Man, Two Guvnors is really a nice way to forget about all that and see a super-fun piece of theatre that’s so well acted and directed you might think you were in NYC rather than Boulder.
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