THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS By Carlo Goldoni

The Servant of Two Masters is a farce about acquiring capital, specifically how much one man is willing to suffer to rise above his station.

In my production of Servant, I was drawn to the classism in the text, Truffaldino's hunger to attain fiscal mobility, and what the exact purpose of producing an escapist farce is in 2022. Who is allowed to rise above their status? Who deserves our sympathy in a capitalist container?

The vision was to stage a dystopic, reality TV show-inspired version of the play, embracing the implicit racism, gender binary and grotesqueries of the show without didactic judgement. Characters would physically transform as they entered a magic square from strange sloth bodies to perfectly postured TV stars to perform in the farce. Remembering something told to me in theatre school (that people of colour should only play servant roles in farces because that's all they'll get hired as in the real world) I re-centred the narrative around a racialized man's journey of attaining capital in a twisted celebrity obsessed Los Angeles.

THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS

by Carlo Goldoni

Produced by Theatre Erindale for their 2021/2022 season

March 17-20 and 25-27 2022.

Directed by Aaron Jan

Lighting Design by Mikey Slater

Set Design by Sarah Scroggie

Costume Design by Michelle Vanderheyden

Sound Design by Lyon Smith

Stage Managed by Dustyn Wales

Fight and Intimacy Choreography by Siobhan Richardson

Movement Coaching and Choreography by Melinda LIttle

With: Nicholas Buchanan, Austin Chiasson, Aaron Clark, Jacob Dowdall, Kenneth Johnson, Zaynna Khalife, Marissa Monk, Alicia Salvador, Nicholas Simao and Oliver Parkins.

1st photo by Lyon Smith

2nd and 3rd photo by Mikey Slater