The British farce has a long pedigree, and no better are its meticulous but playful heights illustrated than in Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a British tour. Lindsay Posner’s production has reached the Sheffield Lyceum, and judging by the matinee performance I attended, it made a ferociously funny impact.
The company of Nothing On are desperately trying to get ready for their opening night in Weston-Super-Mare’s Grand Theatre, but aren’t having much luck, what with the missing cues, last minute changes, and general hijinks that would form any theatre company’s worst nightmare. We follow the play from its technical rehearsal through to an exceptionally slippery matinee performance and then a performance near the twilight of the tour, where their ‘long and highly successful production is now on its very last legs.’
Frayn’s play within a play is structurally enticing, switching from a technical rehearsal in Act One to the backstage antics and silent farce of Act Two and then to an exasperating, volcanic comedown in Act Three. Misunderstandings, love triangles, slapstick and hapless understudies tick all the farcical boxes.
At times the original text feels a little redolent of an earlier era in its sensibilities, especially pertaining to the Arab ‘sheikh’ character, played for laughs. What elevates the text in its 40th year, however, is the interplay between Simon Higlett’s wonderful design work and its creation of detailed and interconnecting ‘backstage’ and ‘on stage’ sets and the movement direction of Ruth Cooper-Brown. I have never seen so many doors slammed and opened at such a pace in my life!
Especially notable is the extended silent choreography – set against a ‘live’ matinee performance happening ‘offstage’ but in earshot in Act Two – where tensions, romances, and mishaps are played out like a silent comedic tango. Act Two was where my fellow audience members came alive to the joys of Frayn’s farce, and from there the laughs kept coming, albeit at the expense of the particulars of the love triangle plot, purely because there is so much to capture your attention (and your laughter!).
None of the vitality with which the play gets its oomph would have been possible without the pitch-perfect cast. We are treated to a masterful display of timing and physical comedy from everyone in the ensemble cast. Simon Shepherd’s Lloyd, the exasperated director who liberally invokes Richard III, Hamlet, and an existential sigh or two, gives the play a centripetal weight and appropriate thespian weariness.
The veracious energy supplied by Lucy Robinson’s Belinda and Lisa Ambalavanar’s Brooke stand out like a pent-up spring, liable to be stretched too far by the farcical goings-on at any moment. I especially loved Matthew Kelley’s masterful Selsdon, the walkabout ageing actor whom Kelley plays as a loveable Falstaff rogue, and the Fawlty Towers-esque hijinks courtesy of Dan Fredenburgh’s Garry, whose physical exasperation recall John Cleese’s physical exertions as Basil Fawlty.
Every cast member performs their stock role to a tee, however, meaning Act Three’s descent into mayhem feels all the more satisfying as the rivalries and love triangles bring the play to a roaring conclusion. Where Noises Off sometimes feels beholden to the ‘60s and ‘70s milieu that birthed it, particularly in its Carry On influences, Lindsay Posner’s production illustrates the inherent fun in the premise of a play within a play that can truly dazzle, with a cast firing on all cylinders.
Rating: ★★★★☆