After writing The Servant of Two Masters (recently a West End hit in a new version as One Man, Two Guvnors) Goldoni followed up with this timeless comedy of mayhem-inducing mistaken identity. Read more …
Estranged twins, Zanetto and Tonino are unlike each other in every way… except that they look exactly the same. When they both arrive in the same town on the same day each seeking a bride-to-be, romantic entanglements soon become hopelessly confused.
Before lunchtime, insults, threats, proposals, offers of duels and boxes of jewels have all ended up in the wrong hands… sorting it all out in time for the weddings is going to be murder!
Lyceum associate artist Tony Cownie’s fresh take on this riotous farce of confusion and calamity brings a delightfully Scottish flavour to a dizzying, and inventive romantic comedy.
Expect to be tickled pink as some of Scotland’s finest comic talent serve up a big slice of frivolous fun to round off The Lyceum season.
The Venetian Twins is not only a wonderful finale to the Lyceum’s theatrical season, but is truly a testament to the current strength and vitality of Scottish comedy.
Perhaps the occasionally ragbag nature of the script would stop it working with anyone other than an expert director and a top-notch comedy company. But, since that is what we have on this occasion, it hardly matters. It’s here right now and it’s very, very funny.
While Cownie's own production has the action leap a century or so on from Goldoni's eighteenth century original, there's something wilfully unreconstructed about it, even as the patter is pure dead gallus.
A triumph of timing and comic invention from Tony Cownie, who has a ball updating Goldoni.
Writer/director Tony Cownie has given the text a hilarious Scottish twist with accents from florid Edinburgh Banker to Broad Borders and (inevitably) some Gallus Glesga. And there are plenty of one-liners you will want to pass off as your own down the pub.
Carlo Goldoni survives the translation into Scots in highly amusing fashion.
Grant O’Rourke excels as a pair of lovelorn but utterly different identical twins in Tony Cownie’s uproarious version of the Carlo Goldoni farce.
The wit is always sharp and often bawdy, but what shines through are the characters themselves.
A notch or two short of perfection, perhaps, but heading that way, with all the momentum of a runaway early steam-train.
It makes for a great night out that sparkles with constant laughter, sometimes despite yourself.
Although the pace falters a little in the final scene, on the whole it’s hard not to get caught up in the production’s artful mayhem.
In many ways, Cownie’s script does for Goldoni what Liz Lochhead has done for Molière. Little wonder, then, that his production is as funny a night out at the theatre as you are likely to have all year.
Ultimately, it's all about the mood, which is ebullient, effervescent, witty and very, very appealing. This is a great night out.
Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh from Friday April 24, 2015, until Saturday May 16, 2015. More info: www.lyceum.org.uk
RSS feed of Theatre reviews