Physical Comedy

One Show, Two Styles

Richard Bean’s 2011 adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s 1746 Commedia dell’ Art scripted play A Servant of Two Masters, translated into Cockney English as One Man, Two Guvnors, opened this weekend at Seattle Center Theatre to a highly appreciative audience in splendid air-conditioning. Directed by Ken Michels and produced by Sound Theatre Company, it highlighted some interesting problems concerning the adaptation of physical comedy into a script written in a dialect known for verbal circumlocution and wit.