Noises Off
Farce, as is true in all other elements of the drama, has to have a logical and sturdy foundation of reality before we can believe it. First, we have to accept as true its premise. Secondly, we have to consider the characters are who they say they are. And thirdly, we have be willing to “suspend our disbelief” in order to accept the outrageous as the norm.
And thus does A Noise Within’s new production of NOISES OFF, a raucously outrageous satire/farce on the state of small theatre companies in England, especially those touring the hinterlands in a (no so) sexy comedy. Clearly taking off on a genre (best acknowledged by NO SEX PLEASE, WE’RE BRITISH, a low-watt, just-up-from-smutty, sex farce) that has not traveled well in the United States, but since NOISES OFF is so dead-on in its observations of on-stage and off-stage shenanigans, all audiences will get the joke and laugh their fool heads off.
Unlike the dismal 1992 film version, directed with neither wit nor style by Peter Bogdonovich, director Geoff Elliott (who also acts the part of the play’s director, Lloyd Dallas, of this dismayingly awful play entitled NOTHING ON, with the requisite wit and style necessary for belief), has cast it perfectly with actors able to be real and at the same time devastatingly hilarious in all their grimness.
Frayn’s conceit is that the actors are pairing off (as they often do, to wile away the downtime), causing friction amongst themselves. There’s the fading star, Dotty, her boyfriend, Garry, a late-30s jealousy-type, the low-self-esteem’d fellow, his sweeter-than-sugar wife, an older character actor who can’t remember lines or blocking and the sexy-but-dim actress. They are the flotsam and jetsam of a theatre that is one step above amateur, but they’re wonderfully-funny archetypes and Frayn knows how to put them through their paces.
Farce is notoriously difficult to pull off: all those doors slamming and minute bits of stage-business that reflect character and timing, coupled with the actors-within-the-play’s insecurities and idiosyncrasies. If done properly, farce can be extremely rewarding to audiences, by joyously providing outlets for the day’s tensions. And here it most definitely is rewarding. Funny, silly, exasperating and true to (theatrical) life.
Should you be lucky enough to grab a ticket, go and enjoy.
A Noise Within, 234 S. Brand Avenue, Glendale 91204. 818.240.0910 for ticket information. Through December 19th, 2009.