Bawdy comedy in Dunstable with One Man, Two Guvnors

Audiences can expect an evening of slapstick and bawdy fun when One Man, Two Guvnors comes to Dunstable on Friday.
Francis Henshall (Richard Alexander), centre, is confronted by Stanley (Anthony Bird) and Rachel (Chloe Badham).  Photo: Rosalind White PhotographyFrancis Henshall (Richard Alexander), centre, is confronted by Stanley (Anthony Bird) and Rachel (Chloe Badham).  Photo: Rosalind White Photography
Francis Henshall (Richard Alexander), centre, is confronted by Stanley (Anthony Bird) and Rachel (Chloe Badham). Photo: Rosalind White Photography

Presented by Dunstable Rep, the play is set in 1963, with London getting ready to really swing, the Mini already a hit, the Krays at their height, Beatlemania erupting and the Stones just starting to roll.

Richard Bean’s comedy is based on Carlo Goldoni’s The Servant Of Two Masters. It uses the typical Commedia dell’Arte characters - Harlequin, Columbine, Scaramouche, Pierrot - but updated to Brighton in 1963.

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When he updated the play for the National Theatre in 2010, Richard Bean adopted the time and style of the Carry On films, embracing the saucy and camp postcard humour they share.

The story follows Francis Henshall, who gets fired from his skiffle band and gets hired by both gangland boss Roscoe Crabbe and upper-class criminal Stanley Stubbers as their minder – little realising that one of them is dead and the other is his killer.

Roscoe is Rachel, his twin sister, and Stanley is her boyfriend. Both are lost in Brighton and need to get £6,000 from Roscoe’s fiancée’s dad.

The show runs at Dunstable Rep’s Little Theatre from September 23 to October 1.

Email [email protected] or call 01582 204021 to book.

There will be collections for Cancer Research UK and Willen Hospice in tribute to Liz Harvey, one of the Rep’s most-loved members.

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