On 25th January 2024 (evening) I went to see ‘Noises Off’ at the Congress Theatre in Eastbourne. The stalls seemed slightly less than half-full.
The comedy by Michael Frayn is in three acts and is about the making of a classic farce (people going in and out of doors, an illicit liaison, trousers falling off etc). In the first act the company are rehearsing the play at the final rehearsal. There are six actors, the assistant stage manager, the technical guy and the director. One of the actors has a drinking problem and the others have to find him and then keep him away from alcohol. Another actor loses her contact lens. The director is having sex both with her and the ASM. One actor can’t remember her lines, or her movements. Another perpetually questions his character’s motivation. Finally the kinks are, more or less ironed out. After the interval, the second act shows a performance of the play ... from back stage. It starts with problems before the curtain, which involves the director trying to give flowers to one of his girlfriends and not the other. When the play finally starts we see problems developing as props (and actors) go astray, cues are missed, and we hear one of the actors falling down stairs. Most of the time the actors backstage must keep quiet and so a lot of what goes on (including fights between them) must be done in dumb show. This was very funny.
The third act (and there was quite a long pause between this and the second act while some of the audience wondered whether the play had, in fact, ended) shows a performance from the front. Again, things go wrong. Part of the fun of the play is that things (plates of sardines, boxes, bags etc) go missing or mysteriously appear. Now the joke is doubled because when an actor has to point to something that has disappeared and ask where it has gone ... it’s there, and when they have to remark on its reappearance it isn’t there. A door handle comes off. The understudy comes on because the drunk actor is missing ... but the drunk actor comes on too ... and then a second understudy cokes on so they are all saying the same lines (with the same gestures) together. By now it was wildly funny and I was laughing so hard I could scarcely breathe.
From time to time I found it difficult to hear what the actors were saying, either because they were too quiet or because they hurried their lines. Otherwise, the actors were magnificent, especially the young female actor who overacted.
It was really very funny, although the way the play is written (rehearsal, backstage view, front view) meant that some of the jokes were repeated (falling downstairs, for example). The first act took a while to warm up and the second and third acts were very similar to The Play That Went Wrong, which is more extravagantly slapstick and has, I think, trumped this rather older play. But I did laugh and laugh and laugh.
The comedy by Michael Frayn is in three acts and is about the making of a classic farce (people going in and out of doors, an illicit liaison, trousers falling off etc). In the first act the company are rehearsing the play at the final rehearsal. There are six actors, the assistant stage manager, the technical guy and the director. One of the actors has a drinking problem and the others have to find him and then keep him away from alcohol. Another actor loses her contact lens. The director is having sex both with her and the ASM. One actor can’t remember her lines, or her movements. Another perpetually questions his character’s motivation. Finally the kinks are, more or less ironed out. After the interval, the second act shows a performance of the play ... from back stage. It starts with problems before the curtain, which involves the director trying to give flowers to one of his girlfriends and not the other. When the play finally starts we see problems developing as props (and actors) go astray, cues are missed, and we hear one of the actors falling down stairs. Most of the time the actors backstage must keep quiet and so a lot of what goes on (including fights between them) must be done in dumb show. This was very funny.
The third act (and there was quite a long pause between this and the second act while some of the audience wondered whether the play had, in fact, ended) shows a performance from the front. Again, things go wrong. Part of the fun of the play is that things (plates of sardines, boxes, bags etc) go missing or mysteriously appear. Now the joke is doubled because when an actor has to point to something that has disappeared and ask where it has gone ... it’s there, and when they have to remark on its reappearance it isn’t there. A door handle comes off. The understudy comes on because the drunk actor is missing ... but the drunk actor comes on too ... and then a second understudy cokes on so they are all saying the same lines (with the same gestures) together. By now it was wildly funny and I was laughing so hard I could scarcely breathe.
From time to time I found it difficult to hear what the actors were saying, either because they were too quiet or because they hurried their lines. Otherwise, the actors were magnificent, especially the young female actor who overacted.
It was really very funny, although the way the play is written (rehearsal, backstage view, front view) meant that some of the jokes were repeated (falling downstairs, for example). The first act took a while to warm up and the second and third acts were very similar to The Play That Went Wrong, which is more extravagantly slapstick and has, I think, trumped this rather older play. But I did laugh and laugh and laugh.
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