A Servant to Two Masters

Last Friday I went to watch a production put on by the Williams Baptist College Theatre.  Every semester they perform a different play, and this semester it was an adaptation of Carlo Goldoni's "A Servant to Two Masters."  It was hilarious! 

The gist of the play is that there are three pairs of lovers, and of course they can't just peacefully get married.  The main character, Truffaldino, is a roaming low-cast person who ends up getting hired by two masters: a man who came to search for his lost love, and his lost love who has disguised herself as her brother (who was murdered) to get back money owed to him.  The other two lovers at the beginning of the play are the daughter of the man who owes the money and a general fellow.  The daughter had been pledged in marriage to the man who was murdered, so when "he" arrives on the scene there is conniption fit thrown by the daughter and the man she wants to marry (because now her father has to force her to marry the man who is "dead").  Through a series of goofs, Truffaldino ends up getting the disguised lady in contact with her lover, so she can drop her disguise.  Then the daughter finds out that she can actually marry the man she loves.  In the end you have three happy couples, because Truffaldino fell in love with the daughter's servant and is able to win her hand in marriage.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the play was that I knew the actors.  That made it take on a more personal level for me, even though I didn't know the story line.  

This was the opening scene, in the house of Pantaloon (the father).  His daughter and her lover are excited because they've finally been given the green light to get married.

Then in comes Truffaldino, bringing a message to Pantaloon from the "dead" man, who is coming to claim his bride.

Father: "I can't go back on my promise, if he really is alive!"

The "dead" man reveals himself to the daughter, hoping to smooth things out a little bit.  It ended up causing more difficulties....

.... because the lover didn't know the truth.  He thought that she had been treacherous to him, and set out to make an end to his competition.  Here is the "dead" man fighting with the lover.

At this point in the play, Truffaldino is a servant to two masters -- 1) a fellow who came to seek the lady he loves, who is actually the person dressed up as the "dead" man, and 2) the lost lady.    Truffaldino got unto such trouble trying to serve two masters... he could never keep them straight.

Through his goofs, the lovestruck fellow and his fiancée ended up thinking that the other was dead, so they were preparing to hang themselves when they got caught.  Then Truffaldino had some explaining to do -- he was the servant of both, but didn't want them to know that.

Once Pantaloon found out that the "man" wasn't actually after his daughter, he was able to tell her real lover that they could get married.  But because of how things worked out, there had to be some reconciliation first.

And in the end, every one was happily hitched!

They did a fantastic job.  :-)