Studio Theatre 
Studio Theatre, Salisbury 
Lloyd Perry 
6 July 2024
The summer offering from Studio Theatre Salisbury is the brilliantly written One Man, Two Guvnors by Richard Bean.
The play started off life premiering at the National Theatre and then went on a long production run in both the West End, before moving to Broadway. The leading role made famous by James Corden of Gavin And Stacey fame who won the Tony Award in the USA for best actor.
The play is set in 1963. The lead character, Francis Henshall, becomes separately employed by two men – Roscoe Crabbe, a gangster, and Stanley Stubbers, an upper class twit. Francis tries to keep the two from meeting, in order to avoid each of them learning that Francis is also working for someone else. Complicating events, Roscoe is really Rachel Crabbe in disguise, his twin sister. Roscoe had been killed by Rachel’s boyfriend, who is none other than Stanley. Complicating it further still is local mobster Charlie ‘the Duck’ Clench, who has arranged his daughter Pauline’s engagement to Roscoe despite her preference for over-the-top amateur actor Alan Dangle.
There is no doubt that this production is ambitious especially for any amateur group. The pace, props, set and physical comedy is key and, at every point, during the 2 and a half hours, has to be on point.
There is an excellent performance from Jamie Pullen as Francis Henshall. His drive and energy is palpable and shines through. His engagement with the character and with the audience, is strong giving a physically strong and energetic performance throughout. He is brilliantly supported by Rachel Fletcher, who gives a faultless performance as Dolly (Bookkeeper and love interest of Francis). The production is well supported by Alistair Faulkner as Charlie Clench. There are great comedy performances by Matthew Hodge as Alfie and Richard Knight as Gareth; the waiter scene in particular was a real highlight.
There was, however, an issue with the set and scene changes which were long and seemed to have been under rehearsed. It is key to any production to ensure that the pace and slickness of scene changes do not become so slow that the audience becomes uncomfortable. While I completely acknowledge there is a lot of scenery and props I am afraid a number of times I did feel uncomfortable, especially in one scene change where the music ran out and had to be started again. I would have loved to have seen more done with the back projection to help overcome this and keep the audience engaged while the changes took place.
The lighting and costumes were first rate and I loved the attention to detail. The back projection used to depict the Brighton sea front was a great touch. I would have liked the music to have been louder and perhaps have been chosen to support and fit in more with the overall production. It felt a little disjointed at times.
There is no doubt that Studio Theatre want to push the boundaries with this production. While there were some standout and outstanding performances in this production overall I think it could be a stretch too far.
The production of One Man, Two Guvnors runs at The Studio Theatre, Salisbury until Saturday 13 July. Tickets are still available for all performances.
[Editorial: NO performance on Sunday 7 July 2024)]
