Review: NOISES OFF at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Michael Frayn’s NOISES OFF is a genuinely funny homage to classic British farce, replete with more doors and sardines than seems humanly possible. Former Steppenwolf Artistic Director Anna D. Shapiro has returned to direct this increasingly chaotic 1982 farce-within-a-farce. NOISES OFF follows a fictional company of actors and crew members staging another farce called NOTHING ON. Over the course of two hours and 40 minutes (with two intermissions) it includes three Act Ones — showing us various, ever messier moments in the production journey. The first Act One finds the company in a hurried dress rehearsal, the second backstage about a month or so into the show’s tour, and the third near the tour’s end as everything descends into madness.

It’s clear that Frayn is paying tribute to classic farce here: The play relies on both verbal and physical  slapstick comedy. The cast slams many doors and engages with many, many sardines — whether they’re carrying them onstage, forgetting them, slipping on them, stuffing them inside their costumes, etc. Never has tinned fish seemed more pivotal to a storyline.

Such a daffy farce necessitates an equally daffy and game cast to bring it to life. Shapiro has assembled a crew of experts to deliver the unraveling chaos. As NOISES OFF becomes increasingly messier, it conversely requires the actors to be more precise in their antics. Like any farce, NOISES OFF also relies heavily on the characters taking themselves deeply serious...even when the action is deeply unserious. Rick Holmes nails the slimy-yet-genial personality of director Lloyd Dallas, who clearly has little control over his company...even while he’s sleeping with two of its members. As ingénue Brooke Ashton, Amanda Fink has distinctive “eye play;” she makes Brooke’s unique, pronounced blinks a key part of the action — which is especially important for the running gag in which she’s constantly misplacing her contact (sometimes in her eye itself). Ora Jones has a self-serious, grounded presence as Dotty Otley, who fumbles through some of her stage directions from the jump. Jones also demonstrates an immense amount of glee when Dotty becomes devoted to backstage pranks in the second Act One. Andrew Leeds demonstrates some excellent physical comedy as Garry Lejeune, who plays Brooke’s frequent scene partner. James Vincent Meredith has a great vehicle for his comedic chops in Frederick Fellowes, whose nose starts bleeding profusely at the sign of any violence. Meredith gives Frederick a delectable flair for the dramatic. Though she’s perhaps the closest to a “straight woman” the play has, Audrey Francis is keen and engaging as Belinda Blair — the company’s proverbial peacekeeper. Francis Guinan is well-suited to the aloof, often absent Selsdon — though Guinan’s delivery is sometimes too soft spoken, such that it’s hard to hear. Vaneh Assadourian and Max Stewart round out the cast as flustered stage manager Poppy and stage technician Tim, who try to hold the unwinding production together. 

Of course, a play that relies so much on doors for laughs necessitates a great playing ground. NOISES OFF is a terrific vehicle for Todd Rosenthal’s set design magic. Izumi Inaba uses bright colors to distinguish characters in a CLUE-like fashion; it’s a really effective and visually pleasing take. 

NOISES OFF is lengthy and occasionally redundant because the show literally runs through Act One three times from different perspectives. But it’s also legitimately funny — which is rare and welcome for a Steppenwolf show. The cast performs this exhausting, chaotic show with precise and humorous execution. This is a great study in the challenging art of performing farce — and making sure all the doors and sardines do what they’re supposed to do. 

NOISES OFF, a co-production with Geffen Playhouse runs through November 3, 2024 at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 North Halsted. Tickets are $20-$148. 

Photo Credit: Michael Brosilow

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