NOISES OFF To 9 May.
Hornchurch.
NOISES OFF
by Michael Frayn.
Queen’s Theatre To 9 May 2009.
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat 20 April, 9 May 2.30pm.
Audio-described 9 May 2.30pm.
BSL Signed 6 May.
Captioned 29 April.
Runs 2hr 25min One interval.
TICKETS: 01708 443333.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 20 April.
A very funny kettle of sardines.
Ask people who’ve seen Michael Frayn’s comedy about a touring farce production what they remember, and most likely you’ll hear about the central act, where the play laboriously rehearsed in Frayn’s first act is seen in performance from backstage, the precision-timed run of entries, exits and props-handling facing sabotage from in-fighting among cast members.
A tour de farce indeed, given zestful delirium at Hornchurch as Bob Carlton’s cast handle the succession of props whizzing between hands backstage – plants, whisky bottle, fire-axe, plus costumes surreptitiously conjoined – with a sequential perfection the farce-within-a-play cast would surely envy.
The Queen’s audience laughed loud throughout this act. As they did through the final act, usually a somewhat quieter affair. It was laughter earned by Carlton’s realisation of the key to Frayn’s play, the point made in Reviewsgate’s coverage of Mold’s Noises Off in February.
Though the characters are involved in a hopeless tour of a hapless farce called Nothing On, Frayn takes them seriously within his own comic framework. Humour comes from the increasing collision between the spot-on corralling of hectic action and misunderstandings needed to bring humour to the apparent chaos of Nothing On, and the increasing actual chaos as cast relations and habits threaten and destroy this farce-within-the-play.
The Hornchurch cast brings the complete control necessary to make this work, showing increasing desperation amidst the forgotten lines, misplaced props and spontaneous invention which seeks to bandage a stage-world falling apart as props, costumes and entries become ever more errant.
It’s the first act, when chaos is still – just – controllable, that Carlton defines all these characters, from the technically-accomplished auto-pilot ingénue to the motivation-obsessed actor, the company gossip to the alcoholic old pro. Only Carlton’s view of director Lloyd Dallas seems askew, his leather-jacketed heaviness at odds with Lloyd’s suave sarcasm and suppressed fury. For the rest, they’re familiar enough, including Simon Jessop’s hesitant Freddy, Rowan Talbot, overcoming initial awkwardness to delve into Garry’s intensity, or Lucy Thackeray’s overburdened stage manager, plus Kim Ismay as the faded star who put the Nothing On tour together, on it reaching the end of the road.
Dotty Otley: Kim Ismay.
Lloyd Dallas: Shaun Hennessy.
Garry Lejeune: Rowan Talbot.
Brroke Ashton: Nartasha Moore.
Poppy Norton-Taylor: Lucy Thackeray.
Frederick Fellowes: Simon Jessop.
Belinda Blair: Georgina Field.
Tim Allgood: Sam Kordbacheh.
Selsdon Mowbray: Stuart Organ.
Director: Bob Carlotn.
Designer: Rodney Ford.
Lighting: Paul Stone.
Action co-ordinator: Nicholas Hall.
2009-04-22 09:28:26