All theatergoers get to see at a performance is a tightly controlled, well-woven illusion, much like any good work of art. But what happens when the illusion isn’t all that well woven and the collaborators are less than ideal?
Noises Off’s author, Michael Frayn, an English playwright and novelist, was inspired to pen the play in 1982 after sitting backstage during a production of one of his farces. The result from his experience is a play that eviscerates many aspects of “easy theater,” and picks apart the various personalities that have become stereotypical of the stage.
The play opens with what appears to be a performance of a play within a play, Nothing On, which is an obvious joke on the fact that the play is a little lewd, with innuendo and underwear showing up more than once. We are greeted by the inside of a house, complete with upstairs balcony and six doors. PCPA resident actor Kitty Balay enters as the delightful Cockney character Mrs. Clackett, a maid who is trying to take a break with a plate of sardines and toast when she is interrupted by a phone call.
That’s also when we get an introduction to a very important person in the production: the director. Andrew Philpot plays Lloyd Dallas, the director, who begins barking corrections at who we now know isn’t Mrs. Clackett, but rather actress Dotty Otley, who has forgotten a key bit of her part. PCPA makes good use of the Marian Theater in this scene; Philpot walks along the back of the theater—as any director would during a dress rehearsal—and calls out corrections to his actors, whether they hear him or not. Philpot will spend a good amount of time in this act shouting in frustration from among the audience.
After being corrected, Otley springs back into the scene, oddly enough delivering a different set of lines than those from the performance she just gave. Just as she slams the study door behind her, two people enter through the front door. The young and obviously randy couple is hardly into the scene before being halted by the director. PCPA favorites George Walker and Karin Hendricks—who you might remember as the amazing team that made up Bert and Mary Poppins in a recent production—play Garry Lejeune and Brooke Ashton, the youngest actors in Nothing On.
Walker and Hendricks’ depictions of the vapid actors are each hilarious in their own way. Hendricks’ deer-in-headlights look when called upon by the director makes the character’s performance even funnier, making you wonder, how is she capable of this at all? Walker’s performance as Lejeune is enjoyable for several reasons; its subtle homage to Austin Powers is certainly one of them, but mostly it’s the way he portrays the actor trying to defend himself while simultaneously complaining about his job.
The ensemble is joined by Elizabeth Stuart and Michael Jenkinson, who play Belinda Blair and Frederick Fellows, the actors who make up the foil to the younger duo. Jenkinson is hilarious as Fellows, who requires an explanation for doing something as simple as carrying a box to the next room. Stuart plays Blair with a subtle command of the backstage gossip, spreading misinformation and unwittingly sabotaging relationships.
When the cast members realize their eldest member is missing for his entrance, they go into a panic, knowing all too well their colleague’s passion for drink. PCPA resident actor Peter S. Hadres plays the aging and recovering Selsdon Mowbray. Hadres is delightfully satirical and spends more time backstage sleeping than going over his lines. Throughout this hapless dress rehearsal, Andrea Hilbrant and Paul Henry pop in and out as Poppy Norton-Taylor and Tim Allgood, the unfortunate stage managers who are relied on to make everything on set work, from the doors that won’t open or close, to the several plates of sardines.
Once Noises Off gets past the dress rehearsal for Nothing On, it takes to performances of the play in Acts 2 and 3. At this point, the set is turned around so the audience can peer into the backstage of the hopeless production—the last thing anyone involved in the play would want you to see. The disheveled and disordered set mirrors the characters, whose relationships quickly begin unraveling in laughable and unbelievable ways. And they wonder why the director drinks!
Arts Editor Joe Payne isn’t sure whether he’s on or off. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 1-8, 2014.