The Farce Side

Theatre Arlington pulls off an impressive feat with Michael Frayn’s masterful Noises Off

by Mark Lowry

Live theater is an interesting animal. Not only could you get two very different shows of the same piece from different companies, directors and/or actors, but you could find divergent experiences from two performances of one show with the exact same folks involved.

Michael Frayn’s brilliant 1982 Noises Off hilariously satirizes this, as a troupe of Brits perform a stinkeroo of a door-slamming sex farce called Nothing On. Noises Off is performed so often that it’s not spoiling anything to outline the three acts: The first act catches the shenanigans at a dress rehearsal for Nothing On, where we learn about the relationships and characters (meaning the actors playing the characters of Nothing On); the second act is back stage after the run has started; and the third act is after the show has been touring in England for a bit. It’s the same actors and tech people, but the downard spiral is fierce as the offstage drama—love, sexual trysts and jealousy, the same things that fuel every sex farce—overtakes what’s onstage.

So much for keeping the drama on the stage.

Going back to the idea of different productions at various theaters, this is one of the those shows that’s so popular with audiences that you can expect to see it done somewhere at least once in a year, especially with the sprawl in our Metropolitan area and the plethora of community theaters from Azle to Waxahachie.

Programming to please audiences makes sense, but Noises Off is also a serious artistic and technical challenge. I’ve seen professional productions of it that disappointed because of barely imperfect casting, unwieldy sets and slightly off timing. Those would mar any show, of course, but with a farce that depends on sushi chef-like precision in the physical timing, it can be detrimental.

Therefore, Andy Baldwin can take a glorious bow for his production at Theatre Arlington. It puts every other local production from the past decade or so to shame.

The casting’s the thing. Admittedly, on paper, the choices here might have raised an eyebrow. But almost nothing delights more in the theater than having expectations trounced, and Theatre Arlington has done it.

Ben Phillips’ smart-ass but still wry director Lloyd is not the dashing cad you often see in the role, but his is the funniest performance here, and that’s saying a lot with this ace cast.

Another standout is Michael James as the bottle-tipping Shakespearean actor Selsdon, a character too often played like a dementia-ridden drunk they pulled in off the street. There are elements of that in James’ portrayal, but in this case, you can tell that Selsdon was once a great actor (or at least in his mind), in the vein of the actor character in The Fantasticks.

Brooke (Mikaela Krantz), the woman whom Garry (Shane Beeson) brings to the country estate is often curvy and sassy, but the rail-thin Krantz (who just played a 15-year-old boy at Circle Theatre) uses her angular body as a comic device and turns Brooke into a sexy spaz. Teaming with Beeson’s marvelously vapid but charming lead actor, these two are comic gold.

The funny keeps on coming with Brad Stephens’ method actor Frederick, Sherry Hopkins has his fling Belinda, and Krista Scott as the forgetful maid, Dotty, whose tray of sardines becomes one of the play’s funniest gags. Throw in a pissy stage manager, Poppy (Robin Daniel), and a tech guy, Tim (Eric Dobbins), who will do anything so that the show goes on, and you have farcical bliss.

Jack Hardaway’s set is perfect for the script’s demands and the actors’ timing (and so is the size of Theatre Arlington’s proscenium stage), and Meredith Hinton’s costumes work splendidly.

Being the animal that theater is, it would be some feat if this cast captures this show as spot-on as they did on opening night. Then again, unlike Nothing On, most productions get stronger as the run continues. Get tickets now for the final weekend, because it’s a good guess that this one will sell out. Deservedly so.

Theatre Arlington’s Noises Off will leave you in stitches

By Punch Shaw
Special to the Star-Telegram

ARLINGTON – The emergency rooms of Arlington hospitals should add staff and stand by in the wake of the opening of the frenetic farce Noises Off at Theatre Arlington on Friday night.

They are likely to be inundated with patients complaining of sore ribs and maybe even split guts from laughing uproariously for more than two hours without time to even catch their breaths. And after a few more performances, the cast of this extremely physical comedy may need an entire wing of a medical facility all its own.

But a little collateral damage is acceptable in the theater when the show is this funny. Certainly, the lion’s share of the credit for that always has to go to British playwright Michael Frayn, who created this madness about a hopelessly dysfunctional theater troupe’s attempts to present a deeply flawed comic romp called Nothing On. This show is the quintessential British sex farce, and most productions of it keep the laughs coming.

Few presentations, however, realize the full potential of this hysterical material as well as this one. Director Andy Baldwin puts the pedal to the metal as soon as the curtain goes up, and he never lets off. He can do so because he has such a wonderful ensemble of players. They are every bit the unit they need to be for this brilliantly structured bit of nonsense.

It is almost unfair to single out any performer, but it would also be a travesty not to acknowledge the bitingly humorous performance by Ben Phillips as Lloyd, the director of the show’s play-within-a-play. His comic timing is even sharper than his character’s withering wit.

And it would a major oversight not to call your call your attention to the nuanced performance by Shane Beeson as Garry. His perfectly measured portrayal can easily get lost in the chaos of this show’s action, but his work in the third act is as strong as Phillips’ efforts in the first act.

The second act belongs to the cast as a whole. During that section, we move behind the scenes of Nothing On thanks to a fabulous set by Jack Hardway that spins on a turntable to change the audience’s perspective. All sorts of high jinks are played out as the actors silently try to kill one another without interrupting the show out front. Krista Scott, Brad Stephens, Eric Dobbins, Robin Daniel and Michael James turn in great performances in this act just as they do in the other two.

The only flaw in the show, though, is a major one. Sherry Hopkins as Belinda and Mikaela Krantz as Brooke both do excellent jobs with their lines. Hopkins is especially good with the acting-within-acting she has to do, and Krantz scores often with visual humor. But, unfortunately, they have been cast in each other’s roles. It is a tragic blunder in an otherwise perfectly plotted undertaking.

But there is so much else going on in this relentless comedy that it can survive even that obvious misstep. Many of its noises may be off (stage), but this production’s comedic chops are spot on.