Finish your beverages in the lobby before you enter the world of Noises Off, the current production showing at the Indiana Repertory Theatre’s Mainstage, or you run the risk of liquids shooting out your nose or choking with laughter. This beloved play is in masterful hands that wring every laugh possible out of the door banging, fire axe wielding, pratfalling, miscued cast of characters racing across the stage.
The farce-within-a-farce Noises Off is the story of a group of actors putting on a sex farce, Nothing On, far away from the glittering lights of London’s West End. We meet them during the technical/dress rehearsal that is going very badly, with Dotty (Hollis Resnik) unable to remember her sardines from her newspapers, and the exasperated director Lloyd Dallas (Ryan Artzberger) increasing his sarcasm levels with every mistake. Enter Garry Lejeune (Jerry Richardson), an actor unable to complete sentences without a script, and Brooke Ashton (Ashley Dillard), a self-absorbed actress over-acting at every turn. Poppy Norton-Taylor (Mehry Eslaminia) is the put-upon assistant stage manager, and Tim Allgood (Will Allan) is the exhausted stage manager, and both are worried that the piece is going to fall apart. Frederick Fellowes (Robert Neal) and Belinda Blair (Heidi Kettenring) seem to be the adults on the stage, if it weren’t for Freddie’s nosebleeds at any hint of violence and Belinda’s incessant cheerfulness. The hard-of-hearing Selsdon Mowbray (Rob Riley) is a washed-up Shakespearean who is either too late or early entering, and has a little drinking problem. Things aren’t going well in Act 1, to say the least. The theater-goers of Weston-super-Mare don’t know what’s about to hit them.
And things really don’t go well at all after intermission, when the audience gets to see Nothing On from behind the scenes a month later at a matinee in Ashton-under-Lynne. Bad things are going on back there — personal scores are being settled, performances sabotaged, jealousy revealed, liquor bottles being hidden and discovered, wardrobe malfunctions, and the director has given up completely. Act 2 is a wild ride of muscular physical comedy that is uproariously funny.
After another intermission, the audience is greeted by Tim, who apologizes for delays, and the audience sees the last performance of Nothing On two months after the disaster in Ashton-under-Lynne, which has only gone downhill since its debut in Weston-Super-Mare. Now in Stockton-on-Tees, the actors are basically improvising (except Brooke, who stubbornly tries to make the script work while everything else is falling apart), with hilarious results.
The award-winning play by Michael Frayn has always been an audience favorite on both sides of the pond. IRT’s reading of Noises Off is a farcical powerhouse, with a superb cast. Thanks to great direction by David Bradley, the controlled chaos moves like a madcap ballet. Kudos go to Bill Clarke as scenic designer who creates both a stage on a stage and a backstage.
Noises Off continues through May 20 and is the last production for the 2017-18 season. Visit irtlive.com or call 317-635-5252 for performances and tickets.
