There are no auditions for 17-25 year olds who wish to join the Oxford Playhouse Young Company.All that is required is “a real enthusiasm to experiment” – and that enthusiasm really shone through in this first production under director Paul Simpson, Participation Manager.
The audience was primed to expect something out of the ordinary from the outset, as we filed together en masse up the dark back stairs which are normally out of bounds, to take our seats not in the auditorium but on the Playhouse stage. There, in the black world behind the fire curtain, we found the little island of colour and light that would be the play's setting/
A Servant to Two Masters is an adaptation by Lee Hall (of Billy Elliot fame) of Carlo Goldoni’s 1745 play, which has enjoyed enduring appeal, most recently in the modern Brighton-based retelling One Man, Two Guvnors made famous by James Corden. Hall’s script retains the original location in time and place but with a humorous admixture of modern and 18th century idiom (lovers are “my spooning sparrows”).
This production remained staunchly faithful to the play’s roots in Italian commedia dell’arte in every respect, from costume (apart from the lack of masks) to acting style. As in pantomime, the dramatis personae are firmly based on the traditional stock types of the genre (servants, masters, lovers – Harlequin, Columbine - etc) rather than fully-rounded characters. They were enacted with total commitment by the young cast, as larger-than-life portrayals, with exaggerated movement, gesture and expression. Lawrence Paish played Florindo unforgettably as a particularly intense young man, utterly humourless in his single-minded determination to track down his beloved Beatrice (Anna White, who proved his undoubted equal in the staring and glaring department, but with an entertaining sideline in the meaningful sidelong glance). Macks O’Byrne rose to the challenges of maintaining the demanding (Harlequin) role of the eponymous ever-hungry Servant, farcically attempting to satisfy the competing and confusing requirements of his two “Masters”. And Pia Saunders-Patel revelled in her two comedic roles, visibly and comfortably relishing her lines as the (Columbine) maid (“Oh, for God’s sake, just suffer for a while!”) and her crude utterances and gestures as the downtrodden peasant Porter clown.
The whole company worked brilliantly together, especially in terms of co-ordinated action – they were clearly well coached in this respect by their Movement Director, Emma Webb. A highlight of the evening was the hilarious rapid series of humorous tableaux commencing the second half, to the tune of a hurdy-gurdy (yes, a genuine hurdy-gurdy player onstage! – thanks to
The production was a joy to watch. The set – composed, I am told, almost entirely of parts recycled from other productions, such as the Christmas panto – was ingeniously designed by Immy Howard, with free-hanging windows providing a framework for festoons of flowers and foliage, menus, posters, drapes, portraits, curtains etc to be rapidly hung or removed to allow a quick succession of scene-changes from garden to city square to inn to hotel bedroom to merchant’s house. Immy Howard also contrived to produce what appeared to be an ingeniously authentic set of costumes on a low budget, staying true to the traditional tropes and designs and colour schemes. It is amazing what she has achieved with tightly-laced corsets, brightly-laced shoes, little diamonds of felt in primary colours, and a myriad of feathers, ribbons, fringes, tassels, buttons and bows.The overall impact of the show was an exciting whirl of colour, action and flamboyant flourish.
The OP Young Company is currently recruiting for the Summer Term. For more information, please contact Paul Simpson at [email protected].