Servant of Two Masters Slays 'Em

Comedy is hard work--our first thought on leaving The Servant of Two Masters (playing at Seattle Shakespeare Company through February 1, tickets $22-$36) was that the cast members must lose about 12 pounds per night. A Cuisinart of one part mustachioed melodrama with one part vaudeville clowning around, this goosed-up production of Carlo Goldoni's commedia play is determined to make you laugh or die trying, and the actors soon erase any conditioned expectation of Shakespearean gravitas.

We walked in worn out after a long week, but we're suckers for lowbrow laughs, and we ended up enjoying ourselves immensely, along with everyone else there for the sold-out opening night. It's not great theatre--god, no!--but it's good fun, and while not every joke landed, the sheer onslaught of them left us punchy enough to grin at a hoary banana peel gag.

Director Dan McCleary staged The Servant of Two Masters down in Atlanta, in a production starring the gifted Chris Ensweiler as the servant in question, Truffaldino. Wisely, SSC kept the pair together and invited them north. Ensweiler is dressed like Buster Keaton--and completes the look with a deadpan expression--but he's a live wire in the Robin Williams impression-a-minute mold. In addition to his doubling up on servant wages, the story includes a love affair having troubles getting off the ground. That's the terrific Emily Chisholm as Clarice (whose romantic explosions reminded us strongly of that red-headed girl from Animaniacs) and David Goldstein as Silvio (a silent-movie swashbuckler with anger and sword management issues).
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The only drawback to the show is how it begins. McCleary has constructed an introduction that "explains" the vaudeville and movie star transpositions from traditional Italian commedia and you may either experience it as unnecessary or tedious.

The idea is that the troupe, at the last minute, discovers they have to put on Goldoni's play and without time to waste, they settle on American icons the actors are more familiar with than Pantalone and Truffaldino (Harlequin). A program note would have done the trick--but in any event, things rocket right along once this business is dispensed with.