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By GEORGIA WALSWORTH Italian commedia dell’arte vas a highly structured Iramatic form which lourished into the early 18th Century. Venetian playwright. Carlo Goldoni, worked from this form and infused it with spontaneity and realistic comedy. From this gifted and prolific dramatist came “Servant of Two Masters,” a play which has apparently survived two centuries and the trip from Venice to Huntly losing none of its sparkle along the way. The audience at Wakefield School laughed as appreciatively as the Venetians must have and probably at the same lines that had them rolling in the canals two hundred years ago. An ambitious production for a group as small (and young) as the Wakefield Players. “Servant of Two Masters” presented many challenges to director Pamela Lynn and to the students in the cast. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing Lynn was that of instilling in the actors a feeling for the times and an overall understanding of the plot, while bearing in mind 20th Century tastes in humor and comedic timing. The actors seemed to have such a good time with the confusing plot and the clever lines that director Lynn obviously met this challenge. For the actors, the greatest challenge was probably in simply learning the lines. The speech patterns of 18th Century Italian translated to English are not the speech patterns of 20th Century teenagers. It must have been almost as difficult for these young actors to absorb and deliver these lines as it would be to recite a speech in an unfamiliar foreign language and imbue it with any meaning. At times this problem tripped up some of the cast, but in general they handled their lines skillfully.
The plot — extremely simplified—concerns two couples (Clairice and Silvio and Beatrice and Florindoi who are having difficulties getting together, and their difficulties are further compounded by a servant, Truffaldino. who goes to elaborate lengths to serve two masters. Truffaldino' is on stage during most of the play, and puckish Todd Landis was just right for this demanding role. His asides and wry comments were delivered with flair. Chris
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