Review: Southwestern Students Shine in Michael Frayn's NOISES OFF

It's been awhile since I last viewed Michael Frayn's NOISES OFF, but it's such a staple of the theatre community one doesn't have to wait long to find it pop up somewhere. This time, I found it at the Sarofim School of Fine Arts Department of Theatre at Southwestern University in Georgetown. The general theatre community gets excited about a show like NOISES OFF, and by the looks and enthusiasm of much of Saturday night's crowd, that excitement was validated with this (mostly) student production. Southwestern is a unique small private school, and I hear around thirty students make up the whole of the theatre department, giving every student a broad spectrum of opportunity. The cast and crew of this production proved to be committed and deft - two incredibly important pieces when performing a farce, and they entertained their audience well.

NOISES OFF begins with a rehearsal of NOTHING ON, at the Grand Theatre Weston-Super-Mare, and we think we're watching a play happen until Dotty Otley (Olivia Wise) and director Lloyd Dallas (Scott Galbreath) stop the scene to review when the paper, sardines or phone goes off (or stays on). This isn't the first of the evening's constant pauses in the rehearsal - it's a final rehearsal in fact, before the show opens just several hours later. The cast, having been up all night rehearsing are, despite their interminable politeness, showing their true colors.

This is how playwright Frayn sets things up so nicely for the following two acts. We learn Dotty Otley (Olivia Wise) is the play's middle aged star and its producer, and she's involved with the stuttering, can't finish a sentence, younger leading man, Garry (Zack Bencal). Garry's onstage mistress (Tristan Evans) is Lloyd's offstage mistress Brooke, but he is trying desperately to keep that information from the stage manager, Poppy (Joan Milburn) with whom he is also involved. In the meantime, Freddy (Chris Szeto-Joe) who must have a motivation for every breath he takes, has revealed just how much of a klutz he is, the peacemaker Belinda (Emily Blakley) has helped us to understand just how easily he faints at the sight of blood, the classic old alcoholic actor Selsdon (Ed Hillis) has been unsuccessful in finding the booze the cast desperately tries to hide from him and the poor stage manager Tim (Luke Oliver) is exhausted and sleeping behind the sofa. By Act II, set a week later backstage during a performance of the same play (the deft stage crew turn the set 180 degrees during intermission much to the audience's delight) Dotty and Garry are having a row, and it seems for some reason, Garry has it in for Freddie, who he thinks is having an affair with Dotty. Lloyd shows up to try to make amends with Brooke, but continues to fail thanks to Tim's inability to just get a bouquet of flowers to the right person. This is the prize act, the fast paced frenzied action of a cast completely at odds with itself who cannot, and must not, express themselves audibly despite their desire to kill one another. By Act III, set some several weeks later, the cast is in a shambles, and so is the play.

NOISES OFF serves no other purpose than to give us a chance to laugh at ourselves (especially if we are actors) and it does so with such expertise that it's won the Olivier award and been nominated for a Tony. As director Fritz Ketchum points out in her notes, "farce focuses on human needs - eating, drinking, and copulating." The entire cast here gives themselves over to the vigor and energy required of a farce and they execute the show with just the kind of precision that antics found in a farce require. Luke Oliver and Joan Milburn stand out as the overwrought, introverted crew dealing with a neurotic cast and their shenanigans. Chris Szeto-Joe and Zack Bencal both give us especially well executed slapstick, and Olivia Wise and Emily Blakley keep up the pace as well. It's important to note that Olivia's got her work cut out for her, as she's got to appear well older than she is. Hillis and Galbreath are the professionals in this show, two bookends to hold it all together, and they do it nicely. The real delight here is Tristan Evans as Brooke, her awareness of the mechanics and timing of farce are acute and she's a stitch. But the cast of a farce can't be that good without the intrinsic artistry of the director. Fritz Ketchum has taken what I assume to be a cast that is fairly new to farce, set them to work performing in a difficult piece of theatre, and she succeeds at doing so. The set is a piece of construction magic, as it should be, and lights and sound are fairly straight forward (Matthew Murphy, Jaden Williams.) Aside from the occasional and unfortunately common issue of rushing lines in ways that make them incomprehensible at times, Southwestern's production of Noises Off is an appealing night of relentless shenanigans that makes for delightful entertainment for the Georgetown theatre crowd.

NOISES OFF

by Michael Frayn

Directed by Fritz Ketchum

Fridays-Sundays

November 17 - December 03, 2017

Tickets at:

Southwestern University

Sarofim School of Fine Arts

1000 E. University Avenue

Georgetown, TX 78626

Jesse H. and Mary Gibbs Jones Theater

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