November 2009 Production

Noises Off! - Review

From the Croydon Advertiser - 27th. November, 2009

Review by Theo Spring

**** 4 stars

Manic is the word for this fast and furious play. It's all go for the cast, but the backstage crew have their work cut out as they change the set for the play within a play - Nothing On - to backstage, then back again to the set.

Written by Michael Frayn to much acclaim, this eighties farce was revived at the National in 2001 losing nothing of its excruciating comedy.

A farce within a farce, we meet the cast at their dress rehearsal of Nothing On. Once the audience are au fait with the plot, Act II takes us backstage during a performance when feuds amongst the cast are rife, and finally we see the play's melt down, from the front once again, as it draws to the end of its National Tour.

Demanding enough for professionals, ATG took a very deep breath to present a play from which most amateurs would recoil, so full marks to the design and construction team for all those working doors. The solidity of the stairs and first floor platform meant the cast could really move on them. And move they did, from jumping, hopping, tumbling and rushing in and out of the doors.

Dropping her hs, Ali Morris tackled housekeeper Mrs Clackett with courage as there is so much 'business' involved, much of it with sardines. As the actress Dotty Otley, her dress rehearsal scene brought memories of many such rehearsals where the director's takes the last chance to change things. Rick Godbolt's pernickety director Lloyd cannot keep away from the cast on tour - for reasons other than drama we discover.

Jeremy Nicholls literally threw himself into the role of seducing estate agent Roger Tramplemain, creating two very different roles within and without Nothing On. Louise Canfield's saucy Vicki was his aspiring bedfellow whilst Gary Shaw and Christine Woodhead, the actual owners of the house, are tax exiles creeping back illicitly but with similar thoughts on their minds. Throw in aging actor Selsdon Mowbray (Ron White on top form), a weary Stage Manager (Ellie Driscoll) and a nervous and incompetent Assistant Stage Manager (Carolyn Screech) and Nothing On is doomed as a production but provided a major challenge for ATG's real-life director Gee Rook.

For the sake of space, I have hardly included the stage names of the cast, just their roles in Nothing On, but suffice it to say their stage personae were all different to those roles, requiring them to be two people as well as cope with all the farcical chaos. I note from the programme that Carolyn Screech also helped the real stage crew so she had three roles all told!

The play tired a little in Act II when much was mimed but triumphed in its final dying throes when everything that could go wrong was scripted to do so.

Review originally published here.