Richard Bean (1) (1956–)

A Laugh Riot
Review of the Dramatists Play Services Inc. paperback (January 2013) of the Oberon Plays (National Theatre) original (2011) adapted from the original Italian comedy of Carlo Goldoni's "Il Servitore Di Due Padroni" (The Servant of Two Masters) (1745).

I went to a recent live performance of One Man, Two Guvnors at Canada's Shaw Festival in Niagara-On-The-Lake this past weekend and it was the most hilarious and entertaining play of the several that I saw. Much of that has to do with the often outrageous performances by the cast and several clever improvisations and interactions with the audience. Saying more about the latter would be a huge spoiler though.

Reading the play and the source material afterwards shows that almost all of it was on the written page and had its basis in the Italian original. The setting becomes 1963 in Brighton, England rather than 1745 in Venice, Italy. This allows for various early Beatle and skiffle band references and performances. On the page, some of it will probably read flat and some of the jokes (esp. some inside-baseball British circumstances) might fly over your head. In a live performance though, a talented cast can pull it all off with a manic energy which will keep an audience roaring throughout.

See poster at https://www.shawfest.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Guvnors_2024-Plays-2400-x-24...
Poster for Canada's Shaw Festival 2024 production of "One Man, Two Guvnors" featuring Peter Fernandes in the role of Francis Henshall. Image sourced from Shaw Festival.

In the Shaw Festival production I only noticed one major change from the playscript. Several disparaging references about moving to Australia in the original were changed to moving to Canada in order to allow some self-deprecatory humour by the Canuck actors.

A 4 star rating for the script, which can easily become a 5 star on the stage with a cast that can pull it off. In the Canadian production I especially enjoyed the performance of Peter Fernandes in the lead role of Frances Henshall, recognizing him from performances early last year as Benjy the Beagle in the Crow's Theatre performances of Fifteen Dogs.

See photograph at https://scontent-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/448980216_26792006457064786_7...
The cast of the Shaw Festival 2024 production of "One Man, Two Guvnors" take a bow at curtain call to a standing ovation. Lead actor Peter Fernandes front and centre. Source: my own photograph.

Soundtrack
The lyrics and music for the skiffle band songs written by Grant Olding for performance during the play do not appear in Richard Bean's playscript, except for the lyrics to the finale song "Tomorrow Looks Good From Here". You can hear the entire soundtrack of 15 songs on YouTube from a playlist which starts here or on Spotify here.

Pro-Tip
If you are seeing One Man, Two Guvnors in the theatre, the initial several songs by the skiffle band are often treated as a prologue and might begin 10 or so minutes before the announced curtain time of the play. So get there early 😉

Trivia and Links
One Man, Two Guvnors premiered in the UK in 2011 with James Corden in the role of Francis Hensall which was a breakthrough role for the actor, who went on to reprise the role on Broadway in NYC. A trailer for the Broadway run can be seen here.… (more)

England People Very Nice opened at the National Theatre in London in February 2009, and ran until early August of that year. I saw it just before it closed, and read the script afterward, which was most helpful, as I missed a number of jokes in the performance due to the heaviness of the actors' accents (cockney, Irish, and Bangladeshi).

The setting for the play is a UK immigration detention centre, which is filled with migrants and asylum seekers hoping to obtain leave to remain status there. While waiting there, the inmates decide to write and perform a play, based on four waves of immigration to Bethnal Green, a neighborhood in the East End of London, starting with the French Hugenots in the 16th century, followed by the Irish, Jews, and Bangladeshis. At the beginning of England People Very Nice, the actors and director go through their final rehearsal, and the play as performed by the actors takes up all but a few minutes at the beginning and end of the two acts.

The play is a riotous, irreverent and hilarious view of the immigrants by the "native" Londoners in Bethnal Green, and vice versa. The French are portrayed as farting frogs, who wish to pollute English culture with their snobbery and love of sex and cabbage; the Irish keep pigs in their home and have mutant babies after having sex with their siblings ("Don't sleep with strangers; it's dirty!"); the Jews, Bangladeshis and Muslims are similarly skewered. However, the Anglo-Saxons are equally misrepresented, as intolerant, sexually frigid but promiscuous, and vulgar. With each wave there is a love story between the same two actors, with the woman playing a "native" Londoner, whether Anglo-Saxon, Irish or Jewish, who falls in love with the "immigrant" of that particular time. As the immigrants take over Bethnal Green with each wave, the "natives" escape to suburban Redbridge, to pursue their dreams.

At the end of the inmates' performance, several members obtain letters indicating that they have been granted or denied "Leave to Remain" status in the UK, providing a sense of reality and solemnity to the end of the play.

The play England People Very Nice was most entertaining, and is highly recommended by me if it resurfaces in the UK or abroad. The script in the book does follow completely or nearly identically to the performance; however, it doesn't begin to capture the energy and flavor of the live performance.… (more)