Review: Noises Off (Touring)

Wednesday, 1st November 2023 at York Theatre Royal.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Michael Frayn’s farce is an ode to theatre in all its eccentricities, celebrating those who make it and those who enjoy it from the other side of the curtain.

The piece takes shape as three performances from varied angles: an eventful dress rehearsal, the chaotic opening night, and an omni-shambolic performance much, much later in the run – with Simon Higlett’s neat set cleverly pivoting to show us the onstage and backstage areas. So as an audience, we’re getting the overarching narrative of a classic bedroom farce and an entertaining peek behind the curtain as the cast fluff lines or miss cues during the dress, or almost miss cues on the first night thanks to frictions and rebellions backstage. It’s clever stuff – and very entertaining.

There is of course a definite danger in doing things over on stage, but this piece is littered with more than enough gags to keep things interesting – and there are some great recurring gaffs which build nicely across the piece, only reaching their comic peak in that third segment. That said, the ingredients of farce are so well-known at this point that some gags are too predictable for laughs, and yet others are so predictable that they’re all the funnier for the foresight – and that’s why comedy is an untameable beast… Still, director Lindsay Posner achieves a great many laughs and impressive pace here.

Simon Shepherd leads the cast as the end-of-tether director muddling through with a cast who are, well… in need of more rehearsal. Liza Goddard is the stand-out as Dotty Otley, the muddled housekeeper played by a muddled actress – Goddard really knows how to give a running gag legs.

She’s joined in the “empty” house by Lisa Ambalavanar, who plays the ditzy Brooke and manages to pull off the very difficult act of being a wooden actor while also being a great one. Brooke is the secret guest of Garry, played by Mark Middleton with comic athleticism as the over-eager actor playing an interrupted would-be Lothario. Middleton’s turbo-charged performance during the final whacky instalment is a real highlight of the show – and we should thank movement director Ruth Cooper-Brown for such comical physicality.

Owners of the house arrive in due course, and Simon Coates and Lucy Robinson provide good comedy fodder as the quibbling, wittering actor and his mothering co-worker before transforming into the skittish tax evader and his perky wife. Robinson in particular shines when things start to snowball, giving each reaction to a chaotic development an impressive sense of spontaneity.

Matthew Kelly provides the stock drunk: an old hat at this whole stage thing, Selsdon’s top priority is to get hands on a bottle or two – when he’s not being chucked on stage as the unimpressed burglar that is. Daniel Rainford and Nikhita Lesler are also great as the overworked stage hands who are thrown on as understudies at will, and yet never quite manage to keep up with developments…

Cleverly structured and proudly ridiculous, Noises Off offers up plenty of entertainment and laughs if you’re willing to wait for them – and it’ll perhaps stay with you longer than you might think, if you happen to spend any time at all around sardines…

Noises Off is at York Theatre Royal until November 4th 2023 – more information and tickets can be found here. The show then continues to tour until February 2024 and more information about venues and tickets can be found here.

Images: Pamela Raith