Chin-stroking devotees of difficult northern European plays from the early part of the last century may very well break out in hives at the thought of going to see One Man, Two Guvnors. This is (it says here) a "glorious celebration of British comedy – a unique, laugh-out-loud mix of satire, songs, slapstick and glittering one-liners".
Even theatregoers who like to be entertained rather than challenged on a night in the stalls might think twice about seeing such a comedy, particularly when the butt of some of the jokes is an Irishman called Paddy. The threat of audience participation also hangs ominously over the play.
Despite these reservations, One Man, Two Guvnors, which comes to Dublin later this month, is very, very funny and almost as smart, which explains why it has left more than one million theatregoers as far apart as Hong Kong and Broadway rolling in the aisles over the past six years.
One Man, Two Guvnors has been wonderfully adapted by Richard Bean from Il Servitore di Due Padroni (The Servant of Two Masters), an 18th-century comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni. It owes a huge debt to the Italian Renaissance Commedia dell'arte – that's something for the chin strokers right there.
Classic Commedia was characterised by improvised physical comedy from actors working with a list of possible scenarios, each with a very basic plot. This 21st-century version is so well scripted and choreographed that, on occasion you could be forgiven for forgetting the cast were acting.
The plot, such as it is, plays second fiddle to the farce and the slapstick. It is set just before the birth of rock’n’roll and sees a chap called Francis Henshall sacked from his skiffle band before becoming a minder to the Reggie or Ronnie Kray-like Roscoe Crabbe.
The thing is, Roscoe’s actually dead, and his twin sister, Rachel, has stepped secretly into his still warm shoes. Roscoe was killed by Rachel’s boyfriend, Stanley Stubbers. Francis starts double-jobbing with both Stubbers and Roscoe/Rachel but has to stop his two guvnors meeting. He is also starving.
The consequences are hilarious. There are more laugh-out loud moments in this two-hour romp than are to be found in most British sitcoms of the past 30 years.
Mister Bean
The man to thank for the whole affair is Richard Bean, who is on fire right now (not literally). Six of his scripts have been staged somewhere on these islands this summer and autumn.
Great Britain, Bean's drama about newspaper phone-hacking, is playing in London's West End. It will soon to be joined by his script and plot for the musical of Made in Dagenham. Bean's historical drama, Pitcairn, is on at Shakespeare's Globe while a revival of Toast, his 1999 stage-writing debut, recently finished at London's Park Theatre. There is also his take of Molière's The Hypochondriac, which opened in Bath this month.
Irish actor Michael Dylan gets some of the biggest laughs in the play as an old Irish waiter. He really has to work for them: he is hit in the face with doors, cricket bats and many kitchen utensils over the duration of the three-course meal that is central to the play.
You may recognise Dylan from Muppets Most Wanted as Russian Gulag Guard No 6, although probably not. "Most of my bits ended up on the cutting-room floor," he says when we meet.
Dylan is much more upbeat about his new role; there is no chance any of his star turn will be cut.
“It was a massive challenge to play it at the beginning with the sheer physicality involved, but it is a dream role,” he says. “Every night I get to play an 86-year-man and the audiences go wild for me.”
He says that, no matter where the play has travelled, “people love it”. Even those “who don’t really laugh that much are laughing out loud. I think Irish audiences are really going to love this.”
The play sometimes looks like a night of improv, but Dylan says it “is choreographed to within an inch of its life, and that is what makes it so perfect. It is written fantastically, but it has a structure and that is why it works. If we do veer off course, then it loses it a bit. It really just shows that the old gags are the best – someone being hit in the face by a door will never get old.”
Acting in Ireland
Alicia Davies plays Roscoe and Rachel, and she clearly relishes her role, although she admits to being nervous about her Irish stage debut.
“I have only been a theatre-goer in Dublin and everything I have ever seen there has been incredibly highbrow, but I think this play is clever enough to appeal to a highbrow audience.”
Davies’s character carries the lion’s share of the responsibility for the plot, but she wears it well.
“I think the plot is very important because without it, it is just Michael being hit in the face. But it is incredibly complicated actually. I have to take it seriously, because if I do not, then it is just not funny.”
While she carries the plot, Gavin Spokes, as Francis, is the star. He brings a charm and energy to the performance that is impossible not to warm to. It is lucky he’s so charming on stage, as he will have to do a turn as Paddy Irishman – for reasons that only become clear when you see the play.
His Irish accent is not in Tom Cruise territory, but it would be overstating it to suggest it is perfect. “I don’t know how Paddy will go down in Ireland, and to be honest I am terrified, I am absolutely terrified.”
He needn’t worry. Audiences here are going to love him.
One Man, Two Guvnors runs Nov 17-22 at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre
