(OUTscene NW) RE-view: Seattle Rep's The Servant of Two Masters is Classic Slapstick with Scripted Improv to the Max!

Image: Courtesy Richard Termine

by MK Scott

Someone suggested I see the Classic Goldoni Play, The Servant with Two Masters, currently being performed at Seattle Repertory Theatre, merely because it was a commedia dell'arte classic. My High School loved performing that style with (2) George Herman's Classics, a Company of Wayward Saints and later, The Eve of All Saints.

This SRT production (Directed by Christopher Bayes) technically its Yale Repertory Theatre's production with a little Seattle flavor thrown in. Classic Improv with an actual script with a few added contemporary names and phrases added in. Think of the Genie (Robin Williams) in Disney's Aladdin with all of the modern day references.

The Servant of Two Masters opens with the introduction of Smeraldina (Julie Briskman), a woman who has traveled to Venice disguised as her dead brother in search of the man who killed him, Florindo (Jesse J. Perez), who is also her lover. Her brother forbade her to marry Florindo, and died defending his sister's honor.  Smeraldina disguises herself as Federigo, (her dead brother), so that he can collect dowry money from Pantaloon (Allen Gilmore), the father of Clarice( Adina Verson), her brother's betrothed. She wants to use this money to help her lover escape, and to allow them to finally wed. But thinking that  Smeraldina's brother was dead, Clarice has fallen in love with another man, Silvio (Eugene Ma), and the two have become engaged. Interested in keeping up appearances, Pantalone tries to conceal the existence of each from the other.

Smeraldina's servant, the exceptionally quirky and comical Truffaldino (Steven Epp), is the central figure of this play. He is always complaining of an empty stomach, and always trying to satisfy his hunger by eating everything and anything in sight. In one famous scene, it is implied that he eats Smeraldina's beloved cat. When the opportunity presents itself to be servant to another master (Florindo, as it happens) he sees the opportunity for an extra dinner.

Truffadino is more like the Aladden's Genie with the modern references and slapstick Inprov. By Act 2, the constant Improv, which in the theater, can be misunderstood as Ad-libbing. Sometimes it went on for too long.

Don't get me wrong, I found Epp's Truffaldino entertaining, But I truly enjoyed Briskman's Smeraldina and the Super Sexy, Perez's Florino. Will the lovers, realize they share the same servant?

The show is a Slapstick classic and the Improv makes it entertaining, but true classical enthusiasts, may be put off.

SRT's The Servant of Two Masters runs through October 20th. Click Here for Tickets.