{"id":10676,"date":"2015-02-06T00:11:54","date_gmt":"2015-02-06T08:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=10676"},"modified":"2015-02-05T23:12:59","modified_gmt":"2015-02-06T07:12:59","slug":"one-play-two-opinions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/02\/06\/one-play-two-opinions\/","title":{"rendered":"One play, two opinions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Left to right: Andrew McNee as Francis and Martin Happer as Stanley Stubbers in One Man, Two Guvnors at the Arts Club Stanley Theatre. (photo by David Cooper)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s always disconcerting when sitting in a theatre listening to everyone laughing while thinking, \u201cWhat\u2019s so funny?\u201d<\/p>\n

That was my experience at the media opening of One Man, Two Guvnors<\/em> Jan. 28. I\u2019m thinking, therefore, that this review is going to be controversial. Judging by the audience response to the play, I was, with the dozen or so others who left at intermission, clearly in the minority.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the problem was that reading the name of the play and about its background, and having been to British period comedies in the past, I had high expectations. I anticipated caustic wit and clever verbal jousting; instead, I was witness to very lame jokes and antiquated slapstick comedy.<\/p>\n

Slapstick? Really?<\/p>\n

For much of Guvnors<\/em>, I felt as though I was in a studio audience watching a bad sitcom. It hearkened back to when, as a child, I watched my parents roll in laughter at the likes of Wayne and Schuster\u2019s antics \u2013 certainly performances that would draw yawns today.<\/p>\n

Now, just in case I\u2019m coming across as a humorless Scrooge who wouldn\u2019t release a guffaw unless I was on laughing gas, let me remind readers of previous reviews. I have snickered at the wit in The Philanderer<\/em>, joined the multitudes who guffawed to The Producers<\/em> and fell off my seat convulsing in laughter during Dirty Rotten Scoundrels<\/em>. But those plays were smart. Witty.<\/p>\n

Guvnors <\/em>seems to play to the lowest common denominator of predictable, parochial humor at the level of arm-pit noises and fart jokes. The main character Francis is compared by the director to Will Ferrell. \u2018Nuf said.<\/p>\n

Now, before I continue on my rant, let me delve into the plot for some context. The play takes place in 1963 in England, starting in London where Pauline and Allan are preparing for a marriage that looks like it\u2019s going to be thwarted: Pauline\u2019s former fianc\u00e9, Roscoe, appears to have come back from the dead. It turns out that Roscoe is, in fact, Rachel, Roscoe\u2019s twin sister, who must keep up the sham that Roscoe is alive until she can collect on the 6,000 pounds Pauline\u2019s father is supposed to give him\/her, at which point Rachel plans to run away to Australia with her lover Stanley, who is actually Roscoe\u2019s murderer. Rachel and Stanley become the two \u201cguvnors\u201d to Francis, a poor sod who\u2019s either starving for food or starving for love.<\/p>\n

The story picks up in Brighton where the farce of mistaken identities really takes off. Francis, who is the consistent backbone to the plot, finds himself serving both guvnors in one hotel, trying to keep them apart, not knowing their hidden connections. In the end, there is a \u201chappy\u201d ending, with two avoided suicides and three marriages.<\/p>\n

In an unusual twist, the performance is introduced by a quartet of musicians, a guitarist, a banjo player, stand-up bass and washboard \u2013 the first I\u2019ve seen at the Stanley \u2013 that introduces the first and second acts and intersperses the play with fun tunes and singing.<\/p>\n

As well, during the show, a few audience members are coerced to come on stage and be part of the performance. (Don\u2019t worry, it\u2019s all part of the act.)<\/p>\n

At intermission, I was told by friends enjoying the performance that it is supposed to be<\/em> silly. Indeed, the director\u2019s notes state that it pays tribute to the vaudeville era of entertainment, the play itself being an adaptation of the beloved 18th-century Italian playwright Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni\u2019s A Servant of Two Masters<\/em>, which itself is based on the commedia dell\u2019arte of the 16th century.<\/p>\n

But so what? In a play where the comedy is predictable, does it really matter if it\u2019s due to bad actors doing a bad job versus good actors intentionally doing a bad job? What\u2019s the difference between a show that recreates outdated theatrics well and one that is simply outdated?<\/p>\n

In fact, the play itself suggests there is no difference. In one conversation one character asks, \u201cDoes he smell of<\/em> horses or does he smell like<\/em> horses?\u201d Suggesting the difference is that a man who smells of<\/em> horses might have been riding them and, therefore, comes from good stock; whereas a man who smells like<\/em> horses just smells bad.<\/p>\n

His counterpart responds, \u201cWell, it\u2019s all the same in the end, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Quite so.<\/p>\n

Guvnors<\/em> runs until Feb. 22 at the Stanley Theatre. The Jewish community\u2019s multitalented Anton Lipovetsky is not only the musical director and lead-guitar player in the quartet but also has a small part in the play. Another bright community talent, Ryan Beil, plays the love-struck Allan Dangle. Israeli Vancouverite Amir Ofek designed the sets that hearken back to the Stanley\u2019s original life as a vaudeville house.<\/p>\n

Baila Lazarus<\/strong> is a freelance writer, painter and photographer. Her work can be seen at orchiddesigns.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Left to right: Andrew McNee as Francis and Martin Happer as Stanley Stubbers in One Man, Two Guvnors at the Arts Club Stanley Theatre. (photo by David Cooper) It\u2019s always disconcerting when sitting in a theatre listening to everyone laughing while thinking, \u201cWhat\u2019s so funny?\u201d That was my experience at the media opening of One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[3113,540,3110,3111,3114,3112],"class_list":["post-10676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-amir-ofek","tag-anton-lipovetsky","tag-carlo-osvaldo-goldoni","tag-commedia-dellarte","tag-guvnors","tag-ryan-beil"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}