Servant of Two Masters

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A Servant to Two Masters (Arlecchino servitore di due padroni) is a comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1753. This play begins with the character Beatrice, who has traveled to Venice disguised as her dead brother in search of the man who killed him: her lover, Florindo. Her brother forbade her to marry Florindo, and died defending her honor. Beatrice disguises herself like him so that she can collect dowry money from Pantalone, the father of Clarice, her brother's betrothed. She wants to use this money to help her lover escape, and to allow them to finally wed. But thinking that Beatrice's brother was dead, Clarice became engaged to another man: Silvio, and the two have quite fallen in love. Interested in keeping up appearances, Pantalone tries to conceal the existence of each from the other.

Beatrice's servant, Truffaldino, is the hero of this play. He is always complaining of an empty stomach, and always trying to fulfill his hunger. When the opportunity presents itself to be servant to another master (coincidentally Florindo) he sees the opportunity not for trouble, but for two dinners instead of one! As Truffaldino runs around Venice trying to fill the orders of two masters, he is almost uncovered several times, especially because other characters repeatedly hand him letters, money, etc. and say simply "this is for your master." Poor Truffaldino doesn't know to which master these things are to go! Not to mention the fact that Beatrice and Florindo are staying in the same hotel, and each searching for the other.

In the end, with Clarice's and Smeraldina's (Pantalone's feisty servant who is smitten with Truffaldino) help, Beatrice and Florindo finally find each other, and with Beatrice exposed as a woman, Clarice is allowed to marry Silvio. The last matter up for discussion is whether Truffaldino and Smeraldina can get married, and this finally exposes the fact that Truffaldino had been playing both sides all along! But everyone has just decided to get married, so Truffaldino) is forgiven.

The most famous set piece of the play is a scene where a starving Truffaldino tries to serve a banquet to the entourages of both his masters without either group becoming aware of the other, while desperately trying to satisfy his own hunger at the same time.

One of the main themes of this play is found in the character development of Truffaldino. As mentioned above, he is always hungry. That is his action: it is what he wants in the play. Yet, the play does not end when he finally gets a meal and a full belly; it ends with a kiss shared between him and Smeraldina. Truffaldino, it seems, was hungry for love.

The characters of the play are characters from the Italian Renaissance theatre style Commedia dell'arte. In classic Commedia tradition, an actor learns a stock character (usually accentuated by a mask), that has characteristics fundamental to an archetype, to perfectionand plays it throughout his career. The actors had a list of possible scenarios, each with a very basic plot, and performed jokey set pieces around the plots known as lazzis.

[edit] Performance History

Goldoni originally wrote the play in 1745 at the request of actor Antonio Sacco, one of the great Truffaldinos in history. Goldoni's earliest drafts had large sections that were reserved for improvisation, but he revised it in 1753 in the version that exists today^[1].

The most successful recent production was of Lee Hall's translation by the Young Vic (2000), for which Jason Watkins received an Olivier Award nomination for his performance as Truffaldino. Other notable English adaptaions have been written by Edward J. Dent, Tom Cone for the Stratford Festival, and Jon Mullich which set the action of the play in Prohibition-era Chicago (with the famous banquet scene taking place in a speakeasy)^[2]. A classic Commedia dell'arte production was memorably staged by the International City Theatre in Long Beach, California in 2001 and Treat Williams once played Truffaldino at the Cincinnati Playhouse.