Carlo Goldoni

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price A classic Italian comedy that remains blisteringly hilarious and relevant, over two hundred and fifty years after it was written. Disguising herself as her dead brother, Beatrice travels to Venice to find Florindo, the man responsible for his death. However, her servant, Truffaldino, enters into the pay of Florindo, and struggles to keep his two lives and masters separate. Carlo Goldoni's play The Servant of Two Masters (Il servitore di due padroni) was written in the 1740s, though later revised by its author. It draws on the tradition of Italian commedia dell'arte. This English version in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is translated by Stephen Mulrine.

A Christmas pantomime with an Italian accent from the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Young Vic Company "Two wages. Two men's meals. Am I mad? Not half." Carlo Goldoni's 18th century comedy about a wily servant who gets the best of his masters by hook and crook is one of the great classic commedia dell'arte scripts of world drama. In this new, rapid fire adaptation by award winning dramatist Lee Hall, the language has been updated to now in order to give the action the fast-paced feeling of a Christmas pantomime. A cracker of a version certain to please all and fill the theatres.

This Student Edition of Goldoni's classic 18th century play, A Servant to Two Masters, features expert and helpful annotation, ideal for anyone studying or performing the play. Editor Joseph Farrell's accessible Introduction includes a plot synopsis, a commentary on the dramatic, social and political context, and on the themes, characters, language and structure of the play, as well a list of suggested reading, questions for further study and a review of performance history. The play revolves around the wily, greedy servant Truffaldino, who in trying to fill both his purse and his stomach, attempts to serve two masters simultaneously. Meanwhile, his mistress disguises herself as her dead brother to claim the dowry from his bewildered, bereft fiancee. The plot is full of mishaps and mix-ups, confusions, disguises and mistaken identity, before the murder and entangled romances can be resolved. Lee Hall's contemporary, faithful version is fast-paced, funny and idiomatic. Updating the comedy for the reader and audience, this version is thoroughly accessible, whilst also portraying the plot's tricks and absurdities with comic flair.