Servant of Two Masters

"A Servant to Two Masters" ("Arlecchino servitore di due padroni") is a comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1753.

Plot

The play opens with the introduction of Beatrice, a woman who has traveled to Venice disguised as her dead brother in search of the man who killed him: her lover, Florindo. Her brother forbade her to marry Florindo, and died defending her honor. Beatrice disguises herself as him so that she can collect dowry money from Pantalone, the father of Clarice, 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 Beatrice's brother was dead, Clarice has fallen in love with another man, Silvio, and the two have become engaged. Interested in keeping up appearances, Pantalone tries to conceal the existence of each from the other.

Beatrice's servant, Truffaldino, is the central figure of this play. He is always complaining of an empty stomach, and always trying to fulfill his hunger. When the opportunity presents itself to be servant to another master (Florindo, as it happens) he sees the opportunity for an extra dinner.

As Truffaldino runs around Venice trying to fill the orders of two masters, he is almost uncovered several times, especially because other characters repeatedly hand him letters, money, etc. and say simply "this is for your master" without specifying which one. To further complicate matters, Beatrice and Florindo are staying in the same hotel, and are searching for each other.

In the end, with Clarice's and Smeraldina's (Pantalone's feisty servant, who is smitten with Truffaldino) help, Beatrice and Florindo finally find each other, and with Beatrice exposed as a woman, Clarice is allowed to marry Silvio. The last matter up for discussion is whether Truffaldino and Smeraldina can get married, which at last exposes Truffaldino's having played both sides all along. However, as everyone has just decided to get married, Truffaldino is forgiven. Truffaldino asks Smeraldina to marry him.

The most famous set piece of the play is likely the scene in which a starving Truffaldino tries to serve a banquet to the entourages of both his masters without either group becoming aware of the other, while desperately trying to satisfy his own hunger at the same time.

One of the main themes of this play is found in the character development of Truffaldino. As mentioned above, he is always hungry. That is his action: it is what he wants in the play. Yet, the play does not end when he finally gets a meal and a full belly; it ends with a kiss shared between him and Smeraldina. Truffaldino, it is implied, was hungry for love.

The characters of the play are characters from the Italian Renaissance theatre style Commedia dell'arte. In classic commedia tradition, an actor learns a stock character (usually accentuated by a mask), that has characteristics fundamental to an archetype, and plays it to perfection throughout his career. The actors had a list of possible scenarios, each with a very basic plot, and throughout would perform physical-comedy acts known as lazzis.

Characters

The characters from 'A Servant to Two Masters' are derived from "stock characters" used in Commedia Dell'Arte. True Commedia Dell'Arte is completely improvised - with no script, so A Servant to To Masters is not true Commedia. The stock characters were used as guides for the actors improvising.Pantalone: The old, rich, lecherous man with a single motive of money.In Servant to two Masters, 'Pantaloon' comes from 'Pantalone'.Arlecchino an intelligent servent,In A Servant to Two Masters, 'Truffuldino' comes from 'Arlecchino'.

The other characters have all been taken from the stock characters of Commedia Dell'Arte.Il Dottore = Doctor LombardiThe Lovers = Silvio and ClariceBrighella = Brighella

etc, etc

Performance History

Goldoni originally wrote the play in 1745 at the request of actor Antonio Sacco, one of the great Truffaldinos in history. Goldoni's earliest drafts had large sections that were reserved for improvisation, but he revised it in 1753 in the version that exists today [Banham (1998, 433).] .

One of the most successful recent production was of Lee Hall's translation by the Young Vic (2000), for which Jason Watkins received an Olivier Award nomination for his performance as Truffaldino. Other notable English adaptations have been written by Edward J. Dent, Tom Cone for the Stratford Festival, and Jon Mullich which set the action of the play in Prohibition-era Chicago (with the famous banquet scene taking place in a speakeasy) [ [http://www.reviewplays.com/a_servant_of_two_masters.htm ReviewPlays.com] , "The Servant of Two Masters"] . A classic Commedia dell'arte production was memorably staged by the International City Theatre in Long Beach, California in 2001 and Treat Williams once played Truffaldino at the Cincinnati Playhouse.

Adaptations

There have been several movie adaptations of the play:
*Harlekijn, kies je meester (1973) (TV) [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339101/ IMDb.com] ] - a 1973 Dutch adaptation.
*Truffaldino iz Bergamo (Truffaldino from Bergamo)(1972) (TV) [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0281303/ IMDb.com] ] - a 1972 Russian TV movie addaptation.
*Sluga dvukh gospod (Servant of Two Masters)(1953) [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240001/ IMDb.com] ] - a 1953 Russian adaptation.

References

* Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. "The Cambridge Guide to Theatre." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521434378.

External Links

* [http://shopix.250free.com/servant.html Photos of a production of "The Servant of Two Masters"]