Noises Off!

This was a highly entertaining and well-rehearsed piece of Theatre from Michael Frayn.  It is a clever, very complicated play within a play, showing the progress of a professional touring company’s play ‘Nothing On’, from dress rehearsal to last night. It shows how the private lives and disintegrating relationships of the actors affects what is happening on stage.  It seemed a little slow to start but it had to set the scene and give the audience time to accustom themselves to the fact that it is not watching a straightforward play. The First Act is the dress rehearsal and sets everything up, so we knew what was supposed to be happening. The Second Act takes place part way through the run, when personal issues are having an effect, and was absolutely brilliant.  The Third Act was the end of the run when relationships and the play had disintegrated and was great fun although a little silly, not the fault of the Company, just the way it is written. 

The play is a farce and so the set has many doors, plus the added complication of a staircase and a window; in this instance, eight doors, four upstairs and four down. For the Second Act the set is turned round so that we can see what is happening backstage while the actors are performing ‘onstage’, and back to the beginning for the final Act.  The design of the set gave all that was required, with a pleasant country sitting room and the ability to change it around.  Although at times I was a little concerned for stability of the set as it wobbled rather a lot, but as it had to be turned twice it is understandable that it might not be as rigid as a permanent set. I would have quite liked to see the set being turned the second time, in perhaps reduced lighting, it would have allowed the audience to appreciate the difficulties involved. The two items that needed to be solid were the window, which someone climbs through and the staircase, which someone jumps up and someone else falls down - and they were. The window worked very well, I lost count of the number of times it had to be repaired. The furniture and props all worked well. The lighting and sound had been well designed and well cued, with miscues written into the script. The costumes were all appropriate and fitted well, with make up appropriate to the characters.

The cast of nine were extremely well balanced, everyone performed extremely well, especially as most of them portray two characters, ‘themselves’ and their role in Nothing On, the amount of concentration required throughout, but particularly in the second act was amazing. Comedy is difficult enough to do well and farce even harder, timing and lines have to be so accurate as so much of the action is dependent on the right cues, also the cast has to be confident that the set will work when it is supposed to, all things which are true of any production but vital in farce. This must have taken hours of rehearsing to have the timing right and the level of confidence in each other on stage; especially as they had so few rehearsals on the set. 

There were so many hilarious moments in the production but Frederick Fellows jumping upstairs with his trousers round his ankles, the brilliant business with the axe, and Roger Tramplemain’s decent from top to bottom of the stairs (hopefully without injury) were highlights.

I am not quite sure what the reactions of the unsuspecting people who were sitting next to the ‘director’ when he started haranguing his ‘cast’ during the ‘dress rehearsal’ were, and why there were so many plates of sardines, but it all added to the nonsense.

All credit must go to director Rod Morris for helping his cast understand the complexities of farce, and ensuring his cast provided an excellent evening’s entertainment to help drive away the February blues, for at least a short while.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.