One Man, Two Guvnors at the New Victoria Theatre Woking Review

One Man, Two Guvnors
New Victoria Theatre, Woking

16-21 June 2014

www.atgtickets.com/new-victoria-theatre

Reviewed by Christine Charlesworth

One Man, To Guvnors is The National Theatre Production of a comedy by Richard Bean.

As the audience began to file in to take their seats we were already being entertained by a 1960’s skiffle band playing centre stage. This was an excellent way to warm up the audience before the show began and I was delighted that this small band also played during the interval. We were also given a variety of musical entertainment form the group and various other members of the cast during every scene change – and there were many scene changes.

Set in 1960’s sleazy Brighton, One Man, Two Guvnors is based, very loosely, on Carlo Goldini’s 1746 drama The Servant of Two Masters. This new version, written by Richard Bean, tells the story of Francis Henshall, played with great energy by Gavin Spokes. An overweight, failed skiffle player, with a love of food, he finds himself employed by two bosses. One Boss is a gangland leader, the other a gangling upper class twit. Henshall rarely leaves the stage and has the audience in stitches with his comic timing, witty asides and confident performance. In the first scene he cleverly catches a mint in his teeth and then a second one after falling backwards in a chair. His ‘self argument’ where he fights with himself is a wonderful example of well-timed slapstick.

This chaotic plot works well, though at times the slapstick comedy does verge on pantomime, in particular the scene where Henshall has to serve two meals, through two doors, at the same time with help from an octogenarian waiter who has the shakes, played by Michael Dylan. However, the audience loved it and the timing of doors, cricket bats, a whizzing pace-maker, copious amounts of food and a large soup tureen made for tears of laughter.

The set and lighting were suitably in keeping with the era with flats that slid to form Brighton street scenes, long avenues with views of the sea, an area outside the Cricketers pub, or a large apartment.

One Man, Two Guvnors is a play to see if you want an evening of great entertainment. It is a farce but it has a really good script full of gags, both verbal and visual. There is wonderful ad-libbing, superb comic timing, great characterisation, good music and lots of reasons to laugh out loud. It certainly was a ‘smash-hit’ with the audience in Woking on Monday evening.

Rating: 4/5

Tickets cost from £11.90 to £37.90 (plus £2.85 transaction fee).

One Man, Two Guvnors is at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking until 21 June 2014. For more information or to book tickets click here or call the box office on 0844 871 7645.

New Victoria Theatre, The Ambassadors, Peacocks Centre, Woking, Surrey, GU21 6GQ