Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Emma Barton, Derek Elroy, Shaun Williamson, Jasmyn Banks, David Verrey, Edward Hancock, Gavin Spokes, Alicia Davies, Patrick Warner, Elliot Harper, Michael Dylan, Lace Akpojaro, Owen Guerin, Mark Hayden, Katherine Moraz, Catherine Morris, Joseph O’ Malley.
Nobody can serve or be beholden to two people at the same time. Loyalties are not just split but they create a chasm so wide that even Eddie Kidd would have found it impossible to cross. However a single production to cater to the comedy needs of 2,400 people, especially if it is the National Theatre’s gem One Man, Two Guvnors.
The sound of music provided by The Craze filters through the stalls of The Empire Theatre and catches the crowd unawares. The thought of whether each person had made the mistake of attending a gig and not a play would have crossed many a mind and even enjoyed. However Brighton, as excellent a place it is for original music, has got a problem on its hand and for Charlie “The Duck” Clench, played by the ever popular Shaun Williamson, trouble is something he is keen to avoid, especially when a supposed dead man walks back into his and his daughter’s lives.
There might have been concerns that the expanse of set afforded the cast of One Man, Two Guvnors might have seen more of the finely tuned comedic moments lost in the haze of distance. In other companies hands the smaller the stage the more the gentle and acerbic asides lend themselves to be captured and appreciated, however if the thought of lost communication was felt with the slight moment of audience unease, then the superb cast, including the aforementioned Shaun Williamson, Elliot Harper, the awesome Michael Dylan as Alfie and Emma Barton as Francis Henshall’s love interest Dolly, stole the hearts of all as none of the power of the play was lost at all.
Gavin Spokes, as the eponymous fellow with two bosses, is the man of the hour and of the week in Liverpool. A tour de force of expertly timed comedy, the perfection of the sideways glance and playing every scene for everything he possibly can get out of it. Just watching him is enough to make any audience delirious with keen anticipation for the next moment, the next spark of ingenuity in which the comedy will raise the roof of the Liverpool Empire.
It seems so long since someone held an audience so spell bound, so enraptured with their performance in the Empire Theatre you have to wonder why nobody thought to offer One Man, Two Guvnors an extra week in the city, for surely this is one production in which everybody would benefit from seeing.
An absolute blast from start to finish, One Man, Two Guvnors is a dream of a production to come to Liverpool.
Ian D. Hall