One Man Two Guvnors and 1000 laughs.
What is improvised and what is scripted is very much up for debate – for the audience at least. The script is full of hilarious smiles (“love goes through marriage like shit though a small dog”), but the cast seemingly deviate frequently. Even after many months of performances, the cast are still able to keep each other on their toes. One of these comic moments was during the first act with Francais Hensshall – played by Welsh actor Owain Arthur and Stanley Stubbers – Ben Mansfield on stage. Stanley is giving Francais his first job, to deliver a important letter. Mansfield deliberately forgets the letter off stage in a successful attempt to throw Owain. This was side splittingly funning due to the fact that this was a West End production and these where professional actors. Mansfield left Owain on stage and excused himself with a masterful piece of improvisation – “oh, I seem to have left it in my suitcase”. At this point Arthur was uncontrollable corpsing. This was surprising, but highly amusing. This style of acting was allowed due to the Comical style of the play, you can’t imagine Lady Macbeth achieving the same number of laughs. This engagement of the audience made us feel like we were getting a unique show, something you hardly ever find. Owain Arthur, in between the gasps of laughter said “you’re getting a good show tonight.”, which made us feel special. There were other scenes where actors made mistakes, such as the waiter dropping the fork Owain simply stated “whops, butterfingers” which is unscripted and pure comedy which created huge amounts of raucous laughter.
