“Every actor’s nightmare” is perhaps one way to describe Michael Frayn’s comedy, Noises Off, which returns to the Milwaukee Repertory Theater for its 60th anniversary season. It has been 15 years since Milwaukee Rep’s last production of this timeless farce. Once again, audiences are roaring over the missed cues, garbled dialogue, forgotten props, misplaced set pieces, and all the other madcap mischief that make this play so much fun to watch.
New York audiences will recall that a successful Broadway production of Noises Off opened in 2002 at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. The play also was made into a film.
Beloved by theatergoers, Noises Off takes the play-within-a-play concept to a whole new level. The play begins during a late-night rehearsal of a ridiculous British bedroom farce, called “Nothing On.” Everyone is tired and can barely remember their lines. As the play continues, it becomes evident that the cast is nowhere ready for its first performance.
The way Noises Off is constructed is as follows: each actor must play two roles: the characters they play in “Nothing On,” and their “real-life” personas. The “real” characters are far more complex than the dim-witted characters they play onstage in their touring production.
One of several running gags throughout Noises Off consists of a plate of sardines. The prop must be taken on and off the set several times, and the character who plays the maid can’t seem to recall the correct sequence. This puts the rest of the cast in an even grumpier mood than usual, as they must ad-lib lines that refer to a plate of sardines that may, or may not, be in the right place at the right time.
“Nothing On” is such a poorly written comedy, it gives good actors a chance to be very bad. The worse they play their “parts,” the funnier Noises Off becomes. During the performance, “Nothing On” is repeated three times: the late-night rehearsal, about a month into the run, and one of the final performances. The gaffes get worse and worse – and several actors begin to have emotional meltdowns - until one expects the entire enterprise to implode.
The real fun begins after intermission, when the entire set rotates from the front-of-house view to the backstage view. Numerous doors and windows lend plenty of opportunities for the audience to see what happens both onstage and off. The comic timing becomes even more critical in this phase. Thanks to talented director KJ Sanchez, the audience is in good hands.
The only drawback to farce is that the cast portray characters who are not much more than stereotypes: the middle-aged character actress; the ditzy ingénue; the lecherous director; the pompous leading man; the clueless second banana; the frowsy, fashion-impaired stage manager; and the hyperventilating director, for instance.
The good news for Milwaukee Repertory Theater regulars is the chance to see many familiar faces. These include Laura Gordon as Dotty, who plays the middle-aged maid in “Nothing On,”; Gerard Neugent as Garry, the leading man; Deborah Staples as Belinda, the lovely actress “of a certain age”; and Jonathan Gillard Daly as Seldson, an elderly actor with a taste for whiskey. Most of these actors have graced the Rep’s stages for more than a decade. They are joined by a couple of Chicago actors making their Milwaukee debuts, including Aaron Christensen as Frederick, the dimwit actor with a preposterous toupee; and Joe Dempsey as the lecherous director. Both Chicago actors give particularly impressive performances, and they seem to mix well with the Rep regulars.
Also worth noting are a couple of current and former Milwaukee Rep interns who also seem to blend in very well with the ensemble (Sara Zientek and Joe Boersma). Kelley Faulkner, who shone brightly earlier this season as Evelyn Nesbitt in the Milwaukee Rep production of Ragtime, also does a fine job (especially considering her aplomb while wearing nothing but underwear for most of the performance).
A beautifully designed set captures the floral wallpaper, diamond-patterned windows and general ambiance of an English country cottage. An equally superb collection of costumes range from the sensible (Dotty’s maid outfit) to the silly (an improvised Arab “Sheik’s” get-up). The prop makers deserve credit, as well, since the play contains an unusual abundance of them. All in all, this production is a hilarious romp that offers more laughs per minute than anything viewers might see this holiday season.
