Samuel French
Carlo Goldoni
Florindo and Lelia
2 scenes
Written in 1743 by the master of Italian comedy, this piece of slapstick foolery hasn’t lost an ounce of freshness. Twins separated at birth (played by one actor) turn up in Verona, one for an arranged marriage and the other to meet a girl who has run away from her family for him. They are mistaken for each other and the resulting chaos includes duels, betrayals, spats, arrests, a casket of stolen jewels, and a death from poisoned wine: the show’s comic high point! The Venetian Twins was the comic hit of the 1994 Off-Broadway season.
