NOISES OFF: Frayn, Comedy Theatre

London

NOISES OFF
by Michael Frayn

Comedy Theatre
Mon to Sat 7.30pm + Wed & Sat 2.30
Runs 2 hr 20 min One interval

TICKETS 020 7369 1731
Review Danny Braverman 8 March

Slick West End production is ultimately hollow
When a play is revived and then installed in the West End by the National Theatre, they're surely sending out a message that it should be considered some sort of a classic. They couldn't be more wrong about Michael Frayn's 1982 self-conscious farce, where ostentatious technique triumphs over any real substance as this production gets its second West End incarnation.

Frayn gives us three different takes on Act One of the badly written farce Nothing On; the disastrous dress rehearsal, backstage during a pensioner-packed matinee and the catastrophic last night. The middle act is the most ingenious - as the set gets flipped round and the madcap action backstage is revealed.

So, yes, it's all very clever. The play is meticulously constructed and professionally executed, but scrape beneath the surface and there's nothing.

Frederick Fellowes (Derek Griffiths) complains to director Lloyd Dallas (Nicholas Jones) that he needs to find the truth of his character to effect an exit. This is seen as ridiculous given the awfulness of Nothing On. But the real actors have nothing to go on too, as Frayn's characters' emotional lives are merely vehicles for tired gags. Selsdon Mowbray (Malcolm Tierney) is deaf and an alcoholic. There's no compassion or humanity in this writing - feeble jokes about mishearing things and concealing bottles of whiskey are not good enough.

The carnal goings-on - mainly involving intergenerational nooky - are trivialised just as much as in the old-fashioned farces that are the target of Frayn's pastiche.

The crimes against theatre are further compounded by the immaculate set, which couldn't credibly be the work of the hapless carpenter, Tim Allgood (Nick Bagnall).

Comedies worthy of revival should have more about them than this - either heart or bite. With Noises Off, sophisticated fabrication can deceive - diverting attention from its superficiality. If the National Theatre really wants to revive twenty year-old farces for a 21st Century audience they should find something worthy of the effort and that has something worthwhile to say.

Cast:
Dotty Otley: Selina Cadell
Lloyd Dallas: Nicholas Jones
Garry Lejeune: Paul Thornley
Brooke Ashton: Pandora Clifford
Poppy Norton-Taylor: Tessa Churchard
Belinda Blair: Julia Deakin
Frederick Fellowes: Derek Griffiths
Tim Allgood: Nick Bagnall
Selsdon Mowbray: Malcolm Tierney

Director: Jeremy Sams
Designer: Robert Jones
Lighting Designer: Tim Mitchell
Sound Designer: Fergus O'Hare for Aura

2002-03-10 14:08:24