Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Jennifer Bea, Tupele Dorgu, Jessica Dyas, Stephen Fletcher, Kim Hartman, Phil Hearne, Chris Jordan, Jonathan Markwood, Danny O Brien.
The show must go on…even if there are sardines cluttering up the stage, the leading ladies hate each other, one of the leading men wants to kill the other with a fire axe and the Director is left a gibbering wreck, even with his enormous ego, in the wake of being on stage amongst the carnage and destruction that an acting troupe can bring to a theatre. Think you know theatre, then the magical mayhem of arguably the finest British comedy of the 20th Century, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, is one to behold.
First performed in 1982 at the Lyric Theatre, Noises Off has become one of those plays in which when it comes around should be attended, that everything should be dropped in favour of seeing. Dinner with the President of America, that long awaited proposal to your loved one, your team winning the F.A. Cup Final…all should be dropped quietly with no fuss and with a hurried stride make your way to the Royal Court Theatre for a night in which Sardines are God and actor’s foibles bang the drum for hilarious insanity.
Noises Off is one of those very rare plays in which everybody shines. The script makes it clear that it is the community onstage and off, a community that is only a missed line or a wrong scenario leaped upon from falling apart but still a community none the less. Much praise should go to Danny O’ Brien who simply excelled as put upon stage hand/understudy Tim Allgood, the superb Kim Hartman as Dotty Otley/Mrs Clackett and Jessica Dyas as Brooke Ashton/Vicki in perhaps arguably one of the best representations of the character in many years.
The whole cast though played up to audience, especially in the dream of the second act in which the silent comedy was teased to near perfection. In lesser hands the timing of the piece, in which the second act relies heavily upon, would be lost but the male relationships onstage Jonathan Markwood’s Lloyd Dallas, Stephen Fletcher’s irresistible Gary LeJeune and Chris Jordan’s Frederick Fellows was at its most destructive and brilliant best. It is farce in its truest and most spectacular form.
With the gracious Tupele Dorgu, Phil Hearne, Chris Jordan and the delightful Jennifer Bea making up the cast, there is nothing not to like about Noises Off, there is nothing not to love. Life is after all like sardines, packed to the rafters, everybody fighting for the lead role and full of wonderful madness.
If Sardines be the food of love, then play on.
Ian D. Hall