Review: Wildly Chaotic Shenanigans ensue with NOISES OFF at Mainstage Irving-Las Colinas! Director BJ Cleveland's latest must-see!

Noises Off

By Michael Frayn

Directed by B.J. Cleveland 

Produced by MainStage Irving-Las Colinas

Audience rating: PG-13
Running Time: 2 hours 30 minutes (1 15-minute and 1 10-minute intermission)
Accessible Seating: Available
Hearing Devices: Available
Sensory Friendly Showing: Not available
ASL Showing: Not available 
Sound Level: Comfortable

Noises or Visuals to Prepare for: slamming doors, fake blood

Reviewed by Stacey Simpson Calvert

Noises Off requires quite a commitment from everyone involved: the actors climbing (and seemingly falling down) those dratted stairs repeatedly and saying the same lines over and over while matching the text to wildly different blocking; and the audience members, who must be patient enough to sit through three acts with two intermissions to receive the full comic payoff. MainStage Irving’s production of this beloved farce is well worth the effort! Its long run time will fly by as you enjoy an evening full of laughter.

The plot of Noises Off follows the cast and crew of a fictional live theater production (a farce, naturally) on the eve of beginning a national tour. Michael Frayn’s cleverly constructed story features a farce within a farce, and the brilliant gimmick here is that the three acts of the play consist of the characters repeating the first act of the fictional British sex farce, “Nothing On,” three times: first at a final rehearsal, then a few weeks later during the tour, and finally at the final performance of the tour.  The play performance gets more disorderly with each repetition, and the laughs get more plentiful.

As the play begins, creative director Lloyd (Robert San Juan) grits his teeth and questions his life choices as he tries to guide his quirky cast and crew through a very bad final dress/technical rehearsal. Dotty (Stephanie Felton) can’t remember her lines, her blocking, or her props. Garry (Maximilian Swenson) can’t finish a sentence, Brooke (Cory Carter) can’t act her way out of a paper bag (or find her contact lens), and Freddy (Jake Shanahan) is questioning his character’s motivation. Belinda (Stephanie Faris Sanders) spends her time gossiping amid encouraging the other actors to keep calm and carry on, and the unreliable Selsdon (Clayton Cunningham) is nowhere to be found. Most alarmingly for a farce involving a lot of slamming doors, the doors aren’t working properly, which further stresses out the harried crew members Poppy (Ashley Hawkins) and Tim (John Marshall). 

If you find yourself wondering a few minutes into Act I when all the belly laughs will commence, have faith: the exposition in Act I features more gentle humor but gets us familiar with the characters and their personalities, quirks, and inter-relationships, as well as their lines and blocking in “Nothing On.” All of this is necessary for the audience to appreciate and enjoy all the ways these things come into play later on. While the characters are learning and rehearsing their stage directions, lines, and entrances and exits, the audience is also learning the way things are supposed to happen in “Nothing On,” making it that much funnier when they don’t go that way at all. By Act III, all of the messy rehearsals, relationship dramas, and missed cues culminate in a wild final performance when pretty much everything goes wrong. The “real” audience was laughing uproariously throughout Act III as we watched the characters struggle to put the play back on track while staying in character.

Scenic Designer Joseph Cummings and Master Carpenter Ellie Wyatt have pulled off a triumph with the huge, rotating, two-sided set that takes full advantage of the deep stage. At the first intermission, this giant set piece is rotated to show us “backstage” so that we can see the wackiness happening behind the scenes while “Nothing On” is being performed during Act II.  Later it’s turned around again so we can see the final performance of the “play within a play.”

Director B.J. Cleveland has put together a stellar cast who absolutely gave their all to the physical comedy as well as adopting precise and identifiable vocal affectations and mannerisms, helping to create sharply-drawn characters. San Juan plays Lloyd as the quintessential stereotype of a vain, condescending theatrical director who believes he was meant for better things, while behaving worse than anyone. The cast in the “Nothing On” play is a collection of the worst actor archetypes: they are selfish, grandstanding, fickle, unprepared, jealous, silly, and overly emotional. Felton gives Dotty a world-weary air of a seasoned actress who’s phoning it in and is well aware of it. Swenson as Garry says a lot of words while saying nothing and gamely throws himself wholeheartedly into the slapstick aspects of the play’s humor. (I hope he’s wearing knee and elbow pads!) 

Carter as Brooke gives us an attractive, somewhat dim young actress who clearly wasn’t cast for her thespian skills but who has nonetheless obviously worked hard on her awkward line phrasing and wooden gestures, to delightfully comic effect. The always excellent Jake Shanahan brings Freddy to life with the perfect mix of neurotic, falsely self-deprecating, and annoying traits, and his physical humor as he deals with glue, sardines, blood, and wardrobe malfunctions is top-notch. At one point all he did was grimace through the doorway and sent the audience into gales of laughter. Sanders is terrific in the role of Belinda, which could be a bit of a thankless role in a play full of larger-than-life character types. She infuses Belinda with a twinkling humor and sweetness, even while gossiping, and makes you see her as the glue that holds everything together (no pun intended). And Cunningham is convincingly vague as Selsdon, who has no idea what’s going on!

Hawkins and Miller as Stage managers Poppy and Tim are hilariously frenetic as they move heaven and earth to keep the show moving while dealing behind the scenes with romantic entanglements among the cast as well as unwelcome complications from Lloyd, who turns up unexpectedly during the tour. The contrast between their actions backstage, as they race around to find actors, hide booze, stop fistfights, call lines, and go on as understudies, compared to their smooth, dulcet tones as they announce curtain times to the audience over the P.A., was so funny but also a tribute to all the unsung, unflappable backstage crew members working in live theater to make the show go on.

Costumes by Michael A. Robinson/Dallas Costume Shoppe were colorful, well-fitted, and character-specific, with a special shout-out to the perfectly chosen green dress and lingerie worn by ingenue Brook (Carter). The talented creative team included Rustin Rolen as Stage Manager, Hank Baldree as Lighting Designer, Rich Frohlich as Sound Designer, and Tiffany Bergh as Property Designer, with James West as Technical Advisor, along with production team Evelyn G. Hall, Tom Ortiz, and Ellis Sergeant.

By the end of the third act, I sat amazed at the hysterically funny, over-the-top physicality and sheer chaos of the show. Big kudos to the cast but also to director Cleveland - it takes a lot of the right kind of preparation to pull off such spectacular disorder with such perfect comic timing. Treat yourself to a wonderful production of what’s known as one of the funniest plays ever written! Runs through August 2 at the Dupree Theater.

On with the show,

Stacey Simpson Calvert