Excerpt from Medford Mail Tribune, Bill Varble
March 30, 2009
The central conceit of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's new production of The Servant of Two Masters is that a troupe of actors is struggling to put it on during bad economic times. How bad? So bad that the company is reduced to borrowing and recycling props from other OSF plays, past and present.
There is a swatch of costume from last year's Coriolanus, a trunk from this year's Henry VIII, and so on. Actors in this commedia dell'arte adaptation at the OSF's New Theatre even propose to fight duels with ballpoint pens until one shows up with a flashy sword and explains that he got it at the nearby Bowmer Theatre, as if they're eating higher on the hog over there.
Even without the timely frame story and the topical stuff, this would be a terrific show. As it is, it is brilliant, and contains perhaps a hint of something beyond the laughs. In the end, all these flawed, familiar, deeply human characters need is each other, and an audience to perform for.
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Bill Varble - Excerpt from Medford Mail Tribune,