It's fast, it's funny, it's sexy – and it's more than 250 years old.
"The Servant of Two Masters," the City Theatre production of the commedia dell'arte gem by Carlo Goldoni, plays for the next two weekends at the Art Court Theatre on the Sacramento City College campus.
Director Christine Nicholson takes just the right madcap approach to this crazy comedy about a poor, perpetually hungry young servant who finds himself … overemployed, with two masters, each of whom thinks he is the sole employer.
Like Shakespeare's comedies – but with a lot more sight gags and one-liners – "Servant" features mixed-up lovers, women dressing as men, and fools in love with love. There's also a duck on a stick (pushed masterfully by Max Josslin) – but that's not like Shakespeare.
The comedy is broad, the thought not deep, but it's a rare kind of entertainment. The costumes (by Nicole Sivell) are colorful, elegant and provocative at the same time, and the masks (a dell'arte tradition) are fetching.
Commedia dell'arte was a popular form of physical theater in 16th- and 17th-century Italy. It was generally improvised along a plot outline. "The Servant of Two Masters" is important for one very good reason: It was the first such comedy to be written down – scripted. Goldoni wrote it in 1745.
The City Theatre production takes liberties with Goldoni's script, adding improvisation, a running gag about a theater patron seeking product placement inside the production, and bits of American pop culture, including lyrics from "You Can't Hurry Love," "Pretty Woman" and other songs. It's in the right spirit, even if it does make a long production even longer.
The play features a mixed cast of student and community theater actors. At Saturday's show, reviewed here, Jes Gonzales (who was excellent as Caesar in City Theatre's recent "Julius Caesar") played the part of the Patron, which is normally played by Kevin Poole. Nick Gailbreath as Florindo and Sam Silverstein as a waiter, also holdovers from "Julius Caesar," were excellent.
But the standouts of the production were Max McKee as Truffaldino, the overworked and underfed servant, and Matt Canty as Silvio, one of two men betrothed to Clarice (Alyse Vogel). Canty was a perfect dimwit, a likable, clueless lad of whom even his father (George Michel) says, "His brain is small, and rarely used."
But he, like the play, was very funny.
Call The Bee's Jim Carnes, (916) 321-1130.
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