Through Sun 4/16
It all begins with a plate of sardines. Or wait — maybe it all begins with a character inside another character? The one thing I’m sure about is this: Noises Off, directed by Scott Spence, now at the Beck Center, is a romping, fun farce of a play
Inspired by playwright Michael Frayn’s observations while he sat behind the scenes during a play (or at least that’s the way he tells it), Noises Off reveals all the action which may be going on backstage while audiences, blissfully ignorant, see only what is onstage.
Shortly after Noises Off begins we realize we are watching a dress rehearsal for a seven-door (at least seven doors) farce titled Nothing On.
When the show opens, Dotty, an eccentric housekeeper (delightfully played by Nanna Ingvarsson), carries a plate of sardines around an elegant drawing room. She claims she wants to munch on the sardines while watching the telly. At first, we are mystified. Why does she keep fretting about where the telephone is, and keep asking “Where is the newspaper?”
When (and how) do we suddenly realize we’re watching a dress rehearsal? Because Director Lloyd Dallas (played by Stephen Mitchell Brown), an authoritative and romantic weasel (as it turns out), comes thundering out of the audience to walk on stage and instruct — first kindly, later not so Kindly —the cast members. Brown’s director remains a sympathetic character despite playing a role which satirizes every bossy mansplainer ever.
He’s also one of the few actors in the play who has to assume only one character. As the program notes, the actors onstage also play “themselves” (when behind stage). For example, Dotty the Housekeeper onstage is Mrs. Clackett offstage (but both are really Ingvarsson).
Other characters include womanizing realtor Gary Lejeune/Roger (Eric Fancher), his sweetie Brooke Ashton/Vicky (a sexy Bella Serrano), and the house owners (and tax-dodgers), the clueless Frederic Fellowes/Philip (Scott Esposito) and his order-freak wife Belinda/Flavia (Sasha Wilson). The inept actor and burglar, Selsdon Mowbray (played with gusto by Bob Keefe), gets a lot of laughs out of too many sips from the bottle he keeps stashing onstage.
Another notable cast member is Kelly Strand as Poppy Norton-Taylor. Strand represents all the gallant stage assistants who race about with clipboards trying (ha ha) to impose order on the cast (and the director). Strand plays the part so perfectly one assumes she has “been there” at least once in her career. Daniel Telford (as Timothy Allgood) plays her hapless assistant.
The scenic design by Cheri Prough-DeVol adds an essential element to the success of Noises Off because it enables us to see behind the elaborately decorated two-story “mansion” we’d seen during the first act. The second act reveals the backstage set and framework. The third and final act restores the initial stage view.
Credit should also go to sound design by Carlton, lighting by Kevin Duchon, and costumes by Inda Blatch-Geib. Hayley Baran was the “real” production stage manager — not an easy task, I think. It was laughable comic fun to watch all elements meld.
Bottom Line: Plan on two hours thirty minutes (two 15-minute intermissions) of ridiculous fun and don’t worry if you are confused. You’re supposed to be. That’s farce.
One Response to “THEATER REVIEW: “Noises Off”@ Beck Center by Laura Kennelly”
EDWARD MYCUE
Fools and mortals keep mixing it up / down, dweebs all. It’s a wonder anyone ever gets any real sleep. And that’s the thing about sleeping and waking — it’s all really merely mental haze. But should it be fun, then it is worth partaking. Clevelanders want to give fun, Fun is a U-turn (or it is not). Do the Canadians (from Toronto, for example) sneak over to enjoy themselves?
I would love to sneak from San Francisco except that sneaking more than halfway across the diagonal divides is so very far.