One Man Two Guvnors at the Citadel

10/28/14 11:51 PM

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When I was offered tickets to see this play about which I knee nothing other than the fact that Kelly-Dawn was interested in setting it, I jumped at the opportunity.
I don’t personally know a lot of local actors, and save a few from A Christmas Carol and Jesse Gervais, whom I’ve long admired ever since I first saw him perform with Mile Zero Dance (nobody slides down an upright piano in slow motion like this man does), I didn’t actually recognize anyone in this play. Not that this makes a difference in my ability to enjoy a play-off in fact, it may help me enjoy it more, as I would come in with fewer expectations.
The play itself is brilliant and hilarious. That could be my summary right there, and if it was enough to get you out to see it, my work here would be done. I’ll add more, though, because it was such an excellent production that it deserves far more than a seven word review.
I found the acting tonight to be spot on. Everyone nailed their parts, and it must be said that John Ullyatt truly was the star of the show tonight. He had complete command of the audience in ways I never would have expected in such a venue. Without giving any of the story away, his character was perpetually hungry throughout the first half of the show, and at one point he asked if anyone in the audience had a sandwich. Would you believe that some crazy bloke did? Well that almost completely derailed the show, as he was totally not expecting someone to A-have a sandwich, and B-call out the fact that he had one in the middle of the play. Anyway, John masterfully improvised about this sandwich for several minutes, the audience was in stitches.(I truly haven’t laughed like that in a very long time), and he even managed to work in a bit about the now infamous hummus sandwich in the second half. It was like something you would only experience at a street performer’s festival. Incidentally, he has quite a bit of a background as a busker, which no doubt had much to do with his level of comfort with surprise sandwiches.
The Bea Arthurs provided brilliant musical interludes throughout the night (under the moniker “The Craze”), and as both the ticket and my Instagram friend @ryanparkersphotos alluded, come early both before the show and don’t send too much time in the loo during intermission, as they play lots of extra tunes at those times, and they are really quite entertaining. Incidentally, Ryan is the lead singer in the band. Lovely voice, too.
My only 2 complaints about the show were 1-too much swearing and 2-most of the British accents were sad, save John’s (seriously man, I thought you were British) and Bob Cratchit’s (Julien Arnold) was excellent as well.
Add an added bonus, we were treated to a Q&A session after with John, Jesse, and the fit and nimble Andrew MacDonald Smith, whose slapstick performance gave me a better ab workout than I’ve had in a decade.
I highly recommend this play to you, and you’ve got a couple more weeks to get out and enjoy it. Cheers!