The Servant of Two Masters

For Mum and Dad

Thank you to Dad for gifting me with a Venetian heritage and for always speaking to me in his native Veneto. Thank you to Mum for always encouraging me to follow my art and for her wealth of knowledge and assistance in the translation of this text. Forever grateful, love you both.

The Servant of Two Masters was first produced by La Mama and Make A Scene at La Mama Courthouse Theatre, Carlton, on 13 July 2016, with the following cast:

Director and Adaptor, Rosa Campagnaro

Adaption Collaborators, Christian Bagin, Lyall Brooks, Sharon Davis, Roby Favretto, Lelda Kapsis and Irene del Pilar Gomez

Set and Costume Designer, Eloise Kent

CHARACTERS

PANTALONA, Clarice’s mother (a female version of the traditional mask, Pantalone)

CLARICE, Pantalona’s daughter and Silvio’s betrothed

IL DOTTORE LOMBARDI, Silvio’s father

SILVIO, Il Dottore’s son and Clarice’s betrothed

BEATRICE RASPONI, from Turin, disguised as her dead brother, Federigo Rasponi

FLORINDO ARETUSI, from Turin, Beatrice’s lover

TRUFFALDINO, a servant to both Beatrice and Florindo

BRIGHELLA, the innkeeper and a high-ranking zanni (servant)

SMERALDINA, Clarice and Pantalona’s zanni (servant)

ZANNI, masked servants, the roles of the waiters and porters

Dottore and Florindo may be played by the same actor.

SETTING

The play is set in mid eighteenth-century Venice over the course of one day.

ON THE TRANSLATION

This is a translation for the stage and the result of a development process that included translating Goldoni’s original Italian and Venetian text and then collaborating with the actors to edit and adapt for a contemporary audience. I wanted this work to maintain a Venetian spirit, and so found it necessary to create a new translation in order to obtain a clear understanding of Goldoni’s original intention. There were some challenges in the translation and questions were often raised and discussions had about how important it was to truly translate the text as opposed to use a phrase or word that still gives a sense of what Goldoni meant. For example, on page 40, Pantalona refers to the word ‘spuzzeta’.

… Oh, here comes that peacock son of his. In Goldoni’s Venetian text he used the word ‘spuzzeta’, which is a bit like saying ‘shithead’. But we don’t say ‘shithead’ because that’s offensive. So don’t say ‘shithead’, okay?

Spuzzeta is Venetian for little stinker, not peacock. However, the animal peacock gives a sense that the character is narcissistic and perhaps stupid. We debated as to whether we should use the literal translation or another mildly offensive word which still gives a sense of what Goldoni intended with ‘spuzzeta’ but allows us to use something that may have more impact and be more comic, like ‘shithead’.