One Man, Two Guvnors

The critically acclaimed masterpiece, One Man, Two Guvnors written by Richard Bean and directed by Nicholas Hytner came to the Kings Theatre, Edinburgh. Based on the Goldoni classic; The Servant of Two Masters, Bean transforms the comedy into a side-splittingly funny piece of genius. Francis Henshall (James Corden) is torn between a desperate love of food and his honour.

After having been squeezed out of his ‘band’, Henshall finds work with Roscoe Crabbe, who is in fact, Roscoe's sister, Rachel (Jemima Rooper) masquerading as him, because the real Crabbe is dead. However with Henshall none the wiser, he thinks of his stomach and takes on another job. His new employer, Stanley Stubbers (Oliver Chris), is emotionally involved with Rachel and the reason for her disguise. Which means that Henshall finds himself in a sticky situation in which he has to keep his two ‘guvnors’ apart to avoid discovery…it sounds oh so easy.

A product of the National Theatre, who were also responsible for the successful productions of Swallows and Amazons and the Tony Award-winning play Warhorse, One Man Two Guvnors boasts a magnificent cast, band, set and script. The culmination of this is a performance was completely and utterly flawless. Bean is clearly pushing boundaries in his writing in both theatre and comedy whilst drawing on aspects of the traditional Commedia dell’Arte, which is reflected in the associate director, Cal McCrystal’s physical comedy direction.

All aspects of the show were perfectly executed, even the moments that seemed to be improvised and the use of musical commentary during scene changes gradually became more hilarious as the show developed. Corden brought the play to life; other notable performances that easily rivalled his brilliance came from Chris' turn as Stanley Stubbers. The whole show was a simply majestic production from the National Theatre, and One Man, Two Guvnors is an absolute must see; get your tickets now.