This play is based on the most famous of Carlo Goldoni’s works, ‘A Servant of Two Masters’, written in the 1740s. ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ went on to win the Critics’ Circle Theatre Award in 2011, then Best New Play in the Evening Standard Awards also in 2011.

The Melville Theatre Company is presenting this hilarious, madcap two-hour play, and it can be seen nightly until Saturday 10th December, at the Melville Theatre, on the corner of Stock Road and Canning Highway in Melville.

The time is 1963, in Brighton on the south coast of England. The main scene is the sitting room of Charlie’s house, but with the movement of the odd flat, it was transformed into the dining room of the local hostelry. The set construction was led by Ross Bertinshaw, who was aided by Don Callison, along with Lars and Jacob Jensen. The whole cast ‘mucked in’ with the painting of the set.

There were several involved scene changes, but stage manager, Garry Davies assisted by Ross Bertinshaw and Jeff Hansen were quick and efficient. The lighting design could have been simple, but designer Lars Jensen had some nice extra touches. Vanessa Jensen operated the lighting and sound desks.

         Thanks to the skills of bent solicitor, Harry Dangle (Peter Neaves), cockney criminal, Charlie Clench (Kim Taylor) has been released from prison – yet again. Now his Jamaican minder, Lloyd (Amri Mrisho), is guarding him.

         In Charlie’s house, there is an engagement party. Charlie’s beautiful but brainless daughter, Pauline (Pip Tompson) was in love with Rosko, but he was discovered murdered by Stanley (Sean Bullock). So Pauline has found a new love, and is about to marry the solicitor’s son, the ham actor and drama queen, Alan Dangle (Lachlan Stewart).

         The doorbell rings and a rotund character, Francis Henshall (Chris Bedding) enters. He is Harry’s odd job man, whose appetite for food is insatiable. Francis spots Charlie’s secretary, Dolly (Victoria Dixon) and immediately there is a love bond. As the party progresses, the dead boyfriend, Rosko arrives – it is in fact his twin sister, Rachel (Sarah Christiner) dressed in Rosko’s suit.

       The group move by taxi, (driver Jeff Hansen) to a private room in the local pub. On the way, they encounter a nervous old lady (Michelle Sharp) and are chased by a policeman (Ross Bertinshaw). At the venue, smart waiter, Gareth (Warren McGrath) and his ancient, accident-prone assistant, Alfie (Don Callison), are serving cordon bleu food for the celebration. The barman (Garry Davies) tries to deal with the demand for drinks.

       Will love blossom? Will anyone ever get married?

The soft background music was arranged and played by Josiah Pad. The costumes, and there were a few unusual ones, were crafted by Michelle Sharp who was assisted by Barbara Lovell.

With Francis’s demand for food, Cally Zanik was kept busy with the preparation of multiple courses for the dining scene.

The play is refreshingly different. It is a blend of farce, slapstick, pantomime and is partly in the style of a series of plays (‘The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate‘) which I cannot stand. With the actors playing straight to the audience, and even becoming slightly involved with them, this was a new kind of humour.

Director, Vanessa Jensen was so lucky in getting Chris Bedding to play the part of Francis. Chris, who is a man of the cloth – no, he is not a window cleaner – specialises in impromptu comedy, where the comedians have to think rapidly as events unfold. He was magnificent in this play, and had all of the body actions. He carried the show. A good comedian often requires a good ‘feed’ man, and the rest of the cast all excelled with their lines and timing. Could Chris be nominated for next year’s Finleys?

There were numerous styles of dialogue for the very different interesting characters; for Pauline she was superb as the dumb daughter, and then there was Rachel who had to deliver a lengthy explanation, in medical terms, of her zygotic structure – hilarious. Poor Alfie must have to lie down for a few hours after every performance.

This show was one constant belly laugh from beginning to end.

The word went rapidly around as to how extremely funny this play is. Every house has been fully booked, and with the demand is still being there, I wish there was another week.

This intriguing two and a half hour mystery can be seen on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8.00 until the 29^th August.

The setting is London around 1960.

The chambers of Sir Wilfred Roberts QC were well furnished, with quality furniture and a fine selection of reference books. The gold, grand drape (stage front curtain) was an ideal backcloth to this scene.

The second scene was of a courtroom in the Old Bailey, most effectively furnished with inventive, cleverly sourced fixtures that gave quite an authentic setting (Stage managed by Vicky Williams).

   Young Leonard Vole (Alex Halse – very good) is an amateur inventor, happily married to Romaine (Helena Hillgaertner – wonderful). He met a rich widow, Miss French, whom he hoped would finance his latest invention. One day he learns that the widow has been murdered, and so he employs a solicitor, John Mayhew (David Cowell), as quickly as possible. Mayhew then decides that a top barrister is required, and so introduces Vole to Sir Wilfred Robarts (Peter Neaves – superb). Within seconds, Inspector Hearne (David Eriksen) is at Robart’s chambers to arrest poor Vole.

     Robarts, his private secretary Miss Carter (Diane Campbell) and her junior assistant, Emily (Michaela Graziano) are all sure of Vole’s innocence, but his only alibi is his wife. With Judge Wainright (Andrew Fairfoul) allotted to the case, and with the brilliant Mr Myers QC (Liam Gobbert) for the prosecution, Vole must find someone else who can prove his innocence.

       In court, Miss French’s Irish housekeeper, Janet O’Brien (Vicky Williams) is called to the witness box by The Usher (Daniel Bradshaw), shortly followed by Dr Wyatt (Michael Khouri) – things are looking bad for Vole. The Forewoman of the Jury (Diane Campbell) looks at another jury member (Teneeka Robinson) and they shake their heads. Surely, when things cannot get worse for Vole, an unknown woman (Tarryn McGrath) is called to the witness box. Finally, Romaine unbelievably agrees to be a witness for the prosecution.

Could a tart, Christine (Kayla Wynne), who calls at the chambers be Vole’s saving grace?

This is an impoverished, but very ambitious theatre group. The lighting rig consists of four medium powered floods on floor stands at the side of the audience. Last night – mid play – one globe exploded showering glass everywhere, luckily, no one was injured, but this left only three lights to illuminate a front apron scene and a full stage with 15 actors.

When the lamp blew, the actors on stage (Peter Neaves, Alex Halse, David Cowell) showed outstanding professionalism by continuing without a flicker.

There were two scenes, the first ‘a barrister’s office’, was in front of the stage curtain. It was built on a 20 cms dais, so that it would not block the next scene on the stage when the curtains opened, however, with all of the seating being on a the hall floor the eye line for the audience was at times tricky. Normally the stage should be at least 50 cms higher than the floor, or the seating should have every second row of seats rising on a 20 cms dais. Now sadly the group is working on a VERY limited budget, perhaps they could try the Lottery Commission and / or perhaps a few community groups may have old incandescent lamps or bio box equipment that they no longer require. This talented group need every little bit of technical assistance that they can get.

The main actors were excellent, but a couple of players with minor parts, struggled; in fact one actor had a couple of fluffs per line of his short script, the most I have seen in years – your fellow actors who were giving it their all, deserve better support from your cameo part. On the other hand, there was a young lady, still in Year 11, along with a few newcomers to the stage, who can be very proud of their performances.

Director Sharon Wigley (with assistant director Ben Robinson) proved herself last year with the zany, madcap ‘‘Allo ‘Allo’ and she has now turned her hand to an extremely difficult, dialogue based story, but has come out the other end with a most successful, serious play.

Sharon is generous enough to take on ‘virgins’ and hone them with care into giving wonderful performances. The cast has worked together immaculately in order that no clue will be given to the murderer.

I have not seen this play on the stage before, but with the lack of physical action, suspense relies upon crisp dialogue. Because a stage production cannot be edited like a film, a good delivery is essential. The courtroom action was gripping throughout.

Yes, this is produced by a community theatre on a meagre budget, but they succeeded in the main aim, i.e. giving the audience a wonderful and exciting night out. Congratulations.