The Varley Players at Byram Hills High School masterfully delivered a 21st century version of Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni’s hilarious 1746 commedia dell’arte production, The Servant of Two Masters.
Using the original dialogue, the play was set in modern-day Manhattan, instead of 18th century Venice. Still, the chaotic journey through mistaken identity, archetypal comedic characters and slamming doors remained unchanged as the broad, physical humor transcended the centuries.
“The students mastered the formal language, they understood the humor and really delivered it,” said Dr. Douglas Coates, the director and Byram Hills chorus and theater teacher. “The students went above and beyond. They were amazing and the audience loved them.”
Commedia dell’arte, a form of early Italian theater that involves improvisation and stock characters, still influences comedy today, Dr. Coates said. “By performing this play, the students learned where comedy came from and how comedy works in modern performances,” he said.
The Servant of Two Masters told the story of a servant secretly serving two people in the form of a modern TV sitcom. The stage characters were loosely based on prominent small screen personalities from the last century including Archie Bunker, Frasier Crane, Rachel Green and April Ludgate.
“I wanted to make it accessible so the students could understand the humor in a contemporary way and be able to tie it back to this art form that has been around for centuries,” Dr. Coates said.
Students skillfully delivered the difficult language and physical humor, which included beatings with a rubber chicken, throwing plates to each other and entering and exiting through several doors, including a swinging door.
“The physicality of the door scene was absolutely brilliant,” Dr. Coates said. “This was a big, physical comedy.”
The actors loved playing their characters.
“It was a lot of fun,” senior Sebastian Mangione said. “Dr. Lombardi is a very outlandish character, so I got to play it up and scream and yell and just have fun with it.”
He said the cast “did a good job of navigating relationships between the characters” and that the scenes that “required physicality were also done really well.”
Sophomore Sophie Kramer, who played Truffaldino, was excited to perform in the show.
“We all worked very hard to put together a fantastic show,” she said. “It felt exhilarating. The entire cast was wonderful! I loved working with them.”
Junior Liana Brown said: “My character was definitely challenging at first because of how different Smeraldina is from me, but I had so much fun by the end when I figured her out!”
She praised the work of the entire cast.
“This show was not easy, yet each one of us pulled our weight and we all collaborated to produce an incredible production,” Liana said. “We were able to land all of our jokes, while still conveying the complicated plot with full clarity.”
Senior Emi Nagura, who played Beatrice, called the show an incredible experience.
“It was set up like a recording studio for a TV show, presented in a play form,” she said. “This allowed us to explore new opportunities and learn a different way of performing.”
“Being put into a production that is very different from any we have done in the past can be challenging, but I feel that as a cast, we were up to the challenge and pushed ourselves to perform at our best,” she added.
The Servant of Two Masters was performed in three shows on Nov. 21 and 22.
