Review: NOISES OFF at Burlington County Footlighters

Being an Anglophile, I was already a fan of Michael Frayn’s 1982 award-winning, screwball British farce Noises Off with its play-within-a-play about a chaotic theater company and their backstage shenanigans during their show Nothing On.  It’s a technically and physically challenging show with pratfalls, dropped trousers, a brilliant revolving set and an orchestration of opening and shutting doors.  Many bits involve lightning precision and timing, and the Burlington County Footlighters do a great job with it.  I wonderered if Frayn was inspired by another favorite of mine about a wacky theater troupe, the side-splitting Enter Laughing, which was based on the autobiography of Carl Reiner.  In truth, Frayn got the idea from the wings of a performance of his own 1970 comedy The Two of Us, which he wrote for Lynn Redgrave.  He found it funnier watching his show from backstage and the idea eventually culminated in Noises Off which gets its name from stage directions involving noises offstage.

The play is told in three acts with two 15-minute intermissions in between and a program for Nothing On is contained within the playbill for Noises Off, complete with bios of all the characters and spoof acknowledgments to providers of props that don’t actually appear in the show (i.e., Straightjacket by Kumfy Restraints Ltd.).  Even the sardines get credit with Old Salt Sardines.  The show opens on a technical rehearsal before opening night at the Grand Theatre in Weston-super-Mare where the hapless actors are struggling and unprepared.  They are having trouble with props, lines, cues, entrances and exits, prompting director Lloyd Dallas (Tim Herman), beads of sweat standing out on his temples, at one point to thunder, “If we can just get through the play once tonight--for doors and sardines.  That's what it's all about, doors and sardines.  Getting on, getting off.  Getting the sardines on, getting the sardines off.”  

We are introduced to the zany Nothing On cast who include Dotty Otley (Jenny Scudder), top-billed but dressed like a housemaid, and involved with the much-younger Garry Lejeune (Alex Levitt), a leading man who stumbles over words and can’t finish sentences unless they’re in the script; dim starlet Brooke Ashton (Cara Cirillo), who is constantly losing her contact lenses, without which she is blind and who is having an affair with Lloyd; insecure Freddie Fellowes (JP Helk) who is prone to nose bleeds; sensible de facto peacemaker Belinda Blair (Alex Davis); and half-deaf Selsdon Mowbray (Richard Mooney) who the cast frantically tries to keep from hitting the bottle.  When Selsdon is late for his cue, Lloyd says bitingly, “A little sooner, Selsdon.  A shade earlier.  A touch closer to yesterday.”  The company is rounded out by Tim Allgood (Andrew Fralinger), overworked Stage Manager who also goes on as the burglar, functions as the tech person, makes the costumes, fixes the sets and does the company payroll and Poppy Norton-Taylor (Lizi Baldwin), Assistant Stage Manager and part of a love triangle with Lloyd.

In the second act, set a month later at a matinee, the theater is seen from backstage, which is an ingenious visual and justifiably a highlight of the show.  Since the set is completely turned around, doors now give a glimpse onto a stage lit as if a live performance is in progress.  Act 2 also delights with clever and complex, furiously fast bits of pantomime and slapstick as relationships further deteriorate.  It all leads to some very funny and uproarious bits with props.  By Act Three, which is set on the last leg of Nothing On’s ten-week run at the fictitious Municipal Theatre in Stockton-on-Tess, we’re back to the front of the stage where the cast, the set and the show are also all on their last legs.

The British are always good at spoofing themselves and Noises Off is British through and through in the great tradition of classics like Are You Being Served and Monty Python’s Flying Circus.  There’s a through-line you can find in this humor from the early 20th Century onward.  There’s also dry, sly, veddy British wit underlying all the silliness.  The nine-person cast of Burlington County Footlighters get the way this show should be done -- energetic and unflagging and deliciously eccentric.   

Tim Herman, who has a Robert Preston quality, perfectly inhabits the role of tempestuous director Lloyd.  The fact that he isn’t always onstage, but just a voice over the loudspeaker is a great touch, especially when he spouts lines like, “And God said….”  Cara Cirillo as the daffy young ingenue, often in lingerie, brings to mind the comely and comedic blondes of the Carry On series, while Alex Davis as Belinda Blair is suitably stalwart and funny.  As Dotty, Jenny Scudder, slightly disheveled, plodding around in her bedroom slippers and with a wrap around her head, brings to mind many a good character actress like Hermoine Gingold.  The other men in the "cast" JP Helk and Alex Levitt are both strong physical comedians who do bits worthy of stuntmen, particularly Levitt, while Richard Mooney is delicious as the devious drunk.

As the Stage Managers, Lizi Baldwin makes a quirky and vivid Poppy while Andrew Fralinger is arguably my favorite character as the put-upon Tim.  When Lloyd is told Tim hasn’t been to bed for 48 hours, Lloyd responds, “Don’t worry, Tim.  Another 24 hours and it’ll be the end of the day.”

Noises Off is funny even if you’ve never done theater, but it is especially funny for people who have.  However over-the-top, there is an element of truth in all the technical glitches and backstage brouhahas that go on even as the show must go on.  Its madcap nonsense and feats of impeccable timing guarantee a good time.  

Noises Off runs from January 24 through February 8 at Burlington County Footlighters.