The classic farce within a farce is onstage through May 5
Some pleasures in life never change, like a dozen red roses, a fresh snowfall, a hot fudge sundae. The same could be said for Noises Off, Michael Frayn’s 1982 zany English farce-within-a-farce.
I’ve seen various productions in different cities over the years and the hilarity never ends. Arvada Center’s new production and its stellar cast capture the wackiness at its best, with tons of sight gags, ludicrous pranks and mile-a-minute highjinks that push the actors to their physical limits.
If you’ve never seen this show, a quick synopsis is in order. The play opens as a small theatre company – made up of has-beens or never-beens – is rehearsing (badly) a ridiculous sex farce called “Nothing On” for the final time before the start of a regional tour. Over three acts, Frayn takes us through a recycling of “Nothing On” in different cities as the “actors” become progressively more unhinged by romantic entanglements within the company. Ultimately, at the final stop on the tour, the backstage dramas spill over into the onstage show.
There are many, many challenges for the cast of Noises Off, and Arvada Center has brought together an ensemble that meets all of them. Perhaps the greatest challenge is playing two characters at once – the “onstage” personas and the “real people” behind them whose backstage shenanigans become increasingly impossible to keep in check. Amidst an almost nonstop slamming of doors, a plate of sardines that can’t stay put and whiplash dialogue, especially in the third act, the Arvada troupe holds its own, and straight faces all around.
Kate Gleason w/sardines | Photo: Amanda Tipton Photography
Keeping them straight
To keep the characters and Arvada Center’s real actors straight, read the program insert for “Nothing On” first before the bound printed program. The fake bios for “Nothing On” are inspired send-ups of the sometime laughable bios that appear in some (but not Arvada Center’s) written program, and are a good preparation for the merriment to follow.
Noises Off opens as Dotty Otley is rehearsing the first scene of “Nothing On.” Dotty is playing the housekeeper of a country house but can’t remember the simplest of her stage business; she keeps forgetting whether to take the plate of sardines out of the room or not, or what happens to the phone after she answers it.
Dotty is clearly past her prime, but Kate Gleason gives us a glimpse of the charismatic star Dotty might have been. Her loopy Dotty, with flaming red hair and a voice that could break glass, immediately prepares us for the goofiness to come. Gleason shines even brighter later on when, among other pranks, Dotty ties together the shoes of her former paramour Garry Lejeune (Adam Schroeder) unbeknownst to him, just as he’s ready to walk onstage.
Leslie O’Carroll in ‘Noises Off’ at the Arvada Center | Photo: Amanda Tipton Photography
As Garry, the handsome lead actor of “Nothing On,” Schroeder demonstrates a gift for physical comedy that his good looks belie. Schroeder uses the set’s staircase like a trampoline throughout the show, but offers a true acrobatic tour de force when he jumps up the stairs with his shoes tied together then tumbles down the full flight, head over heels, without breaking a bone, or a smile.
As the ditzy Brooke Ashton, Noelia Antweiler has the cluelessness of the stereotypical dumb blonde and gleefully milks the humor out of every time Brooke loses a contact lens, repeatedly bringing the “Nothing On” show to a dead stop. The rest of the cast – Gareth Saxe, Jenna Moll Reyes, Rodney Lizcano, Shannon Steele, Teej Morgan Arzola and Leslie O’Carroll — are perfect in their “Nothing On” roles, which range from an addled drunk who can’t remember his lines to a lovesick stage manager. They are all nimble and fast with the physical and vocal demands of their roles and the difficult long pantomimes the backstage scenes require.
The ensemble is cleverly directed by Geoffrey Kent who keeps the gags going without tiring us out. This is no mean trick; the production moves so quickly it could easily become tiresome but that’s a pitfall Kent manages to avoid over the play’s two-and-a-half hours.
As is to be expected from Arvada Center’s first-rate creative team, the overall production is dazzling, especially Brian Mallgrave’s two level, two-sided set. The side showing the country house interior has enough chintz to cover an entire mansion and the reverse view, of “Nothing On’s” backstage façade, is a realistic glimpse into part of how theatre magic is made.
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