Classical hilarity: ‘A Servant of Two Masters’

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The funniest comedy in New York City is almost 300 hundred years old - and as fresh as tonight’s breaking news.  

At the Theatre for a Young Audience’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center in downtown Brooklyn, Director Christopher Bayes and a gifted cast celebrate Carlo Goldoni’s “A Servant of Two Masters” with such robust affection that you find yourself rollicking along, both inside and outside this gorgeous valentine to comedy.

Inside, because you are swept by the madcap players and their outrageously grand histrionics, and outside, because you realize that this hilarious confection, rendered completely to every frill, is such a rare achievement. Forget the Brits. This troupe proves that we can do “commedia del arte” in the American theatre.

Don’t be put off by the classical term for this 18th-century form. Goldoni was the one-man Comedy Network of his day. Author of over 500 plays, he was the master of the simple format of rival households, young lovers, sly servants, and lost messages – all as the means of piling on a series of elaborate gags involving his stock characters and deliberate confusions. And he was generous to his actors, encouraging improvisation, invention, and topicality. The beat goes on in this splendid production. 

Here, Valerie Therese Bart’s lush costumes match the outsize dimensions in Goldoni’s cavalcade. Like the performers who inhabit them, each costume is an eloquent evocation of character, writ large. Lighting Designer Chuan-Chi Chan, in one stunning blackout effect, transforms a pair of tiny flames into a billowing constellation of warmth. The musicians (and composers) Aaron Halva and Christopher Curtis add much more than a klezmer brio to the antics. They and their instruments are integral to the action, an eye-popping nonstop rhythmic jaunt of steroidal slapstick.  The inventive wit tumbles forth in a rush, and this master class in comedy also shows Goldoni’s long reach into vaudeville, standup, and animation.

The ensemble at times appears just as lively and out-of-body as any of your favorite Looney Tunes. Their style is physical, outlandish, and timed out to a breathless beat. They bop along as one in a percussive chorus of takes, asides, and jittery poses that draw you in willingly to a world all its own. You might laugh at the mere look of it all, or at the arrival of any one of the zany characters. Or at the intrusion of a TV jingle. Or at the rat-tat-tat smacks to the jaw from nobleman to servant. Or at the surprise echoes of showbiz cliche and the nightly news. But laugh you will.

But, wait, there’s more! At times, the cast bursts into song, both original and operatic, to elevate the action and the impact by a few more frothy notches. The show is a cornucopia fashioned by experts, and a perfect vehicle to restore the recently sadly tarnished name of clown.

The Theatre for A New Audience Production of “The Servant of Two Masters” runs through Dec. 3 at the Polansky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place in downtown Brooklyn. For tickets, call 212-229-2819 x10.

The Ticket, James Ivers O’Connor, A Servant of Two Masters

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