NOISES OFF: Touring till 26 July

NOISES OFF: Michael Frayn
www.noisesoff.co.uk

Review Mark Courtice: 8th March 2003, Mayflower Theatre, Southampton.

A really good cast keep this revival fresh and funny.
It's huge fun joining in the waves of laughter from an audience of 2500 like that of a full house at Southampton's Mayflower Theatre, and at this revival of Michael Frayn's comedy there is plenty to laugh at. Opening at the National in 2000, this revival has been in the West End, Broadway and on tour, and if sometimes (the previous tour for instance) it has seemed thin; this cast make it a corker.

Director Lloyd Dallas and company are presenting a bad farce called Nothing On. In three acts we see a fraught technical rehearsal, backstage during a show, and the cataclysmic final performance.

The second act is the best. Being ironic about the business of putting on a play compromises the pace in Act 1; Act 3, re-written for this revival, now has high energy and a clear logic, but it still seems a comedown from the hectic and brilliantly funny Act 2. Here, although the setting is backstage, the comedy comes from the universals - love, sex, and ambition much more interesting than all that actor stuff.

In Jeremy Sams' production, bravura performances and sharp timing overcome occasional weaknesses of pace and tone. Cheryl Campbell is clever, being both funny and a real person. There is joyous, effective, physicality in James Albrecht's performance. Paul Bradley is a talented comedian whose impeccable timing and rapport with the audience works even in a huge theatre. Tilly Gaunt is impressive too; disciplined and sharp, proving that a woman forced by circumstance to spend an entire evening in her underwear can be funny in her own right.

Robert Jones' detailed set does everything demanded of it by a show that needs impeccably timed visual gags, slippery sardines and lots of slamming doors. Even if at times it feels as though the direction is by the book, these gags work.

This is modern farce that does not insult your intelligence, and which plays by the rules. Internal logic is adhered to; the characters, even if stereotypical, are people you care about, while the relentless timetable of chaos just piles laughter on laughter.

Dotty Otley: Cheryl Campbell
Lloyd Dallas: Philip Franks
Garry Lejeune: James Albrecht
Brooke Ashton: Tilly Gaunt
Poppy Norton-Taylor: Nicky Callanan
Belinda Blair: Tessa Churchard
Frederick Fellowes: Paul Bradley
Tim Allgood: Andrew Pointon
Selsdon Mowbray: Sylvester McCoy

Directed by: Jeremy Sands
Designed by: Robert Jones
Lighting Design: Tim Mitchell

2003-03-13 19:53:34