Giles Woodforde meets star of a farce to be reckoned with

‘Please feel free to laugh,” we are told. “This is the first run-through with the band and cast together. If the fire alarm goes off, it isn’t necessarily a fire: don’t evacuate unless we stop the show and ask you to leave.”

A gang of us have assembled in one of the National Theatre’s rehearsal studios to watch the first half of its hit show One Man, Two Guvnors as it prepares to go out on tour with a new cast. The fire alarm warning is reassuring, and as for feeling free to laugh, with actor Gavin Spokes literally throwing himself into action as put-upon servant Francis Henshall, that shouldn’t be too difficult.

“When you’re doing this show you have to keep your fitness up,” Gavin laughs as he briefly comes to rest between scenes. “But even before we began rehearsals I was running quite a bit — plus also doing press-ups and things like that. I do need to eat a lot — purely to give me energy, of course.”

One Man is playwright Richard Bean’s adaptation of Goldoni’s classic 18th-century farce The Servant of Two Masters. It’s set in 1960s Brighton, in rooms to let above a seedy backstreet pub. But, unusually in that era, the establishment does serve food, much to the relief of servant Francis, for he expends much energy dashing to and fro, carrying out every wish and whim of his two masters, Stanley Stubbers and Roscoe Crabbe, who are both staying in the pub.

But under no circumstances can the two men be allowed to clap eyes on each other, for there is serious unfinished business between them: Roscoe is really Rachel, posing as her brother — a man who has been murdered by Rachel’s boyfriend, the very same Stanley Stubbers.

Francis spots the chance of an extra meal ticket, and most unwisely takes jobs with both Stubbers and Crabbe. For obvious reasons, he must keep his two new guvnors apart. But is he the man for the job? “Not exactly a Swiss watch, are you?” snaps Stubbers at one point.

Stubbers travels with a massive trunk as his luggage, and Francis is expected to manoeuvre it into the pub. Two members of the audience are recruited to help him — and no, they’re not planted members of the cast. This could be a recipe for disaster perhaps?

“There’s massive potential,” Gavin admits. “I spend half of the first scene thinking: ‘Who shall I choose? Who looks as if they are not going to die?’ The trunk is quite heavy.”

All goes well with the trunk heaving in our rehearsal, but mayhem does erupt when Francis the butler gets hungry and appeals for a sandwich. “You’re not suppose to actually offer me one!” Gavin cries in alarm as a kindly soul digs in her bag and proffers a cheese and tomato delicacy. Whereupon the entire cast collapses with the giggles, and the rehearsal grinds to a halt. By now I am beginning to suspect that Gavin is quite difficult to keep under control.

“I’m kept on a tight leash, that’s the only way of describing it,” he laughs. “If you think you’re being funny, you usually aren’t. When you can see the whites of an audience’s eyes, you begin to doubt, so you start pushing. That’s generally the wrong thing to do. You just have to trust the piece itself, because it’s very good. So it looks as if I’m being a lot more naughty than is actually the case – there’s lots of rehearsed naughtiness.”

Originally staged by the National’s director Nicholas Hytner, One Man is now directed by Adam Penford. To what extent, I ask Adam, is this tour a carbon copy of what has gone before?

“There’s a kind of blueprint, which is tried and tested — and works. But there is a bit of leeway: if you were to watch a previous cast side by side with this one, you would notice quite a few differences. The changes keep the production fresh: otherwise it would be a conveyor belt operation, and that wouldn’t be fun to do for the cast. Consequently the audience wouldn’t enjoy it either.”

One Man, Two Guvnors
New Theatre, Oxford
Tuesday to Saturday 7.30pm, matiné es 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday
Tickets: 0844 871 3020