Noises Off at Burlington County Footlighters is a Fast Paced Farce for the Ages

by Angela Robb

If you’re reading this review, or anything on this blog, chances are you’re a theatre person. As a theatre person you are likely no stranger to the long hours that go into a tech run, the dress rehearsal that never seems to go according to schedule, the opening night jitters, the showmances that somehow always seem to reach a boiling point during the performances, and the performances that just don’t seem to go as well as the rehearsal. As a theatre person you know all of the good aspects of theatre too: the friendships that develop with your cast mates and the way everyone has each other’s backs, but no show has ever really highlighted all of the chaos that comes with a theatrical run like “Noises Off” by Michael Frayne.

“Noises Off” is a 1982 British comedy that has the reputation of being one of the most famous farces ever written. It is written and staged in a very unique way: act 1 takes place during the final dress rehearsal for a play called “Nothing On”, act 2 takes place backstage at their opening night performance, and act 3 takes place during a performance in front of an audience. “Nothing On” is a farce in and of itself telling the story of two couples, a housekeeper, and a robber all in a house together as mistaken identity and hilarity ensue. However, act 1 of “Nothing On” is all the audience at Burlington County Footlighters sees as things consistently seem to go wrong including missed lines, props and entrances, understudies swinging on and off, and the occasional loss of a contact lens. Off stage at “Nothing On” is where we get to know the actors and crew members; about which cast members are secretly sleeping with each other, whose wife just left them, who has a secret drinking problem, and who’s the token cast member trying to hold everything together. I wish I could explain the plot better, but since there are two shows going on simultaneously it’s pretty confusing to describe, but more on the confusing nature of the show later.

Jenny Scudder plays Dotty Ottley, a middle aged TV star who not only has top billing of “Nothing On” but is also financially backing the production and is dating the much younger leading man of the play, Garry. In “Nothing On” she plays Mrs. Clackett, the chatty housekeeper of the Brent home. I felt like Scudder could have used a bigger distinction for when she is playing Mrs. Clackett and when she is playing Dotty, but overall I enjoyed her performance. I thought she had good comedic timing, especially when some of the most famous jokes in the piece came from her lines. Alex Levitt plays Garry Lejeune, the leading man of the play who tries his best but eventually his affair with his much older costar reaches a boiling point leaving him unable to focus on the performance and bring his offstage antics onstage, axe and all. In “Nothing On” he plays Roger, a real estate agent showing Philip and Flavia’s home to Vicki while attempting to seduce her. I felt like Levitt had some difficulties maintaining the British accent throughout the show, but overall was a great comedian. Especially in the final scene of the show where his character falls down the stairs Levitt proved himself to be an excellent physical comedian, not only with his body but also his facial expressions. Cara Cirillo plays Brooke Ashton, a young and inexperienced actress who has no idea what she’s doing and is in a love triangle with the director of “Nothing On”. In “Nothing On” she plays Vicki, the woman Roger is attempting to seduce who actually works for the tax authority. Cirillo was an incredible "bad actor". She really channeled her inner soap star for the performance, using the awkward over the top body movements and vocal inflections one would imagine for a fake actor. This over the top performance as Vicki was a nice contrast to Cirillo’s performance as Brooke, more subdued while still a diva and trying to assert dominance with “the other woman”. While I typically find over the top performances like this cringe worthy, Cirillo had a nice balance and made those choices with purpose resulting in my favorite performance of the production. 

JP Helk plays Frederick Fellowes, a well-meaning but incompetent actor prone to nosebleeds as an anxiety tic from violence and gore. In “Nothing On” he plays Phillip, a man who is out of the country with his wife to avoid paying taxes only to return to notices from the IRS. Helk had great physical comedy and really used that to his advantage to make his character stand out even though he is naturally someone who fades into the background. It’s very hard as an actor to not only act as one character but act as that character acting as someone else. Helk (and Cirillo for that matter) I felt had the best contrast between the “Noises Off” and “Nothing On” characters. While Frederick naturally faded into the background as an ineffectual actor he was someone I couldn’t help but root for. Helk played the character with such gentleness and kindness and brought to life the embodiment of the person in the cast who always means well but isn’t always the strongest. Alex Davis plays Belinda Blair, the veteran actress who is simultaneously cheerful and dependable while also a gossip and struggles to maintain the peace on and off stage of “Nothing On” while everything collapses around her. In “Nothing On” she plays Flavia, Philip’s loving wife. Davis felt so real and relatable in the role. There always seems to be one person in the show that holds everything together and knows everything that’s going on both in and out of the theatre. Davis acted the role very well and made it clear that Belinda was a good actor. I thought she had a nice descent from trying to keep everything under control to eventually losing her patience.  Rounding out the cast of “Nothing On” actors is Richard Mooney who plays Selsdon Mowbray, an old man who has had a long career in the theatre but frequently misses his cues due to hearing loss and a not so secret drinking problem. In “Nothing On” he plays a burglar who breaks into Flavia and Philip’s home. While the role of Snelsdon is pretty small compared to the other actors Mooney played the role well and really played him as someone who means well but isn’t all there. He played Snelsdon’s late and early entrances enthusiastically rather than lackadaisical, making the audiences accept him rather than be as frustrated with him as the “Nothing On” cast and crew are.

Like all shows the performance is not only limited to the actors but there are those backstage who keep everything going as well. “Nothing On” is no exception and shows how the directors and stage management team handle the chaos of preparing for opening as well as the business back stage. Tim Herman plays Lloyd Dallas, the overwhelmed director of “Nothing On” whose primary frustrations come from his cast who can’t seem to just get to the end of the play and his love triangle with lead actress Brooke and stage manager, Poppy. While Herman had some line flubs during the performance his acting was solid. He showed his frustration well while still maintaining the comedy of the piece. Lizi Baldwin plays Poppy Norton-Taylor, the stage manager for “Nothing On”. She perfectly embodied the vibe of a stage manager from the pens sticking out of her bun to the exhausted urgency in her step. Baldwin had a good balance between trying to focus on her duties as stage manager while dealing with being in the middle of a love triangle with the director and leading actress, leaving her with an unexpected surprise she has to tell Lloyd on opening night. Andrew Fralinger plays Tim Algood, the assistant stage manager for “Nothing On” and is delightfully dull in the role. He finds himself being thrown in a million different directions, including having to stay up for over 24 hours on tech night to repair the set, having to travel back and forth on errands for Lloyd on opening night, and having to repeatedly unexpectedly understudy other characters due to one kind of backstage shenanigan or another. Tim’s placid demeanor was a nice contrast from the colorful actors he was surrounded by. I felt like there was some overacting at times from Fralinger which didn’t really balance with the performances of the rest of the cast who seemed to commit their overacting for when their characters are acting as opposed to Tim who was just himself through the majority of the show. Fralinger shows himself as a strong character actor, particularly in act 1 where he is running on no sleep and had to not only build but have to provide pre-opening repairs to the set on his own since Poppy was with Lloyd. His facial expressions are solid and expressive. 

“Noises Off” is a genuine ensemble piece and is nothing without the chemistry of the cast. This company absolutely had that. Everyone worked well together and played off of each other with no one one-upping the other and stealing the spotlight. This is also a nod to director Matt Dell’Olio who’s direction created a world that brought the family aspect of a cast off stage and put it on stage without missing a beat. With that being said, I felt like some of the jokes didn’t fully land. At times, there was confusion among the audience as to what was happening on stage, but overall I really enjoyed Dell’Olio’s direction. It is not easy to direct a show with this many moving parts from actors playing two roles simultaneously to a literal moving set, but he was able to pull it off very well. The jokes that did land, landed hard and met to roaring laughter. It’s not easy to make an audience laugh but Dell’Olio was able to equip his actors with the tools to invoke that reaction from the audience.  

“Noises Off” is not only a show that celebrates an ensemble but one that celebrates the crew. The real star of the production was the set and those that worked with it. As mentioned above, the show is unique because acts 1 and 3 take place on stage at “Nothing On” and act 2 takes place backstage. “On stage” held a living room set, complete with matching wooden furniture and a large couch, a set of stairs leading to a second story hallway and lots and lots of doors. “Backstage” held the wooden panels and platforms holding up the flats, signs to remind the cast to be quiet and not to touch props, chairs for the cast, and Poppy’s stage manager table for her to call the show. The set was designed by Jim Frazer and not only did it look great but it was also efficient. It was well built on wheels and also looked good in the context of both “Nothing On” and “Noises Off”. It was constructed well but Frazer added little touches to make it seem like it was constructed by Tim such as small gaps in the paint on the wooden banister. 

To accomplish the efficiency of the set change the set was literally flipped 180 degrees from “on stage” to “backstage” during the first intermission and back again during the second intermission. This was only performed by three individuals: stage manager Allison Adams, technical director Dave Pallas and running crew member Nanci Cope. In my reviews I don’t usually mention the stage manager since they do so much that I am not able to see from the audience but in this case I could see how well Adams worked. She organized each scene change and who was responsible for moving what so it was down to a science. During the first scene change once the audience realized what was happening they all stopped their conversations to watch. When it came time for the second flip someone in the audience said “here they come” and the three crew members actually got applause for their efforts.

In a comedy like “Noises Off” the show relies on props to aid in the punch lines of the jokes. Sardines, bags, and alcohol bottles need to be there to sell the joke. Allison Adams also served as the prop master for the production. All of the props fit the show well, from the phone and sticky sardines “on stage” to the flowers Lloyd sends Tim to buy for Brooke getting smaller and smaller with each trip to the store and all of the warning signs posted on the flats “backstage”. Costumes were designed by Rebecca Sisley. The costumes for “Nothing On” really helped bridge the gap and helped the audience understand who these characters are even though we don’t fully get to see this show or how it ends. Dotty’s costume as Mrs. Clackett was frumpy and Brooke’s costumes as Vicki showed her youth and bombshell status. Off stage I enjoyed the touches on the costumes for the stage management team. Tim’s sweatshirt was covered in paint and his jeans and sneakers were dirty, signifying all of the manual labor he was providing for the production. Poppy’s costumes really suited her and felt like they came straight out of the closet of a stage manager. Her hair was pinned up with pens sticking out of her bun and surrounded her headset. A. Robert Basile and Heidi Kleber-Salamone designed the sound and while I felt like the volume was off on some of the sound effects I thought that it was pretty well done. Lloyd spends a majority of act 1 talking to the cast over a microphone from the tech booth and his lines were amplified very well. Jim Frazer and Heidi Kleber-Salamone also designed the lighting. The lighting throughout the show was pretty standard on stage but there were some moments that happened off stage in the audience, especially when it came to Lloyd. There were several times, particularly in act 1, where Lloyd entered from the audience and had conversations with the cast on stage while still positioned in the house but he wasn’t well lit enough from the audience so it was difficult to see him. 

“Noises Off” is a pretty niche type of show and for those of you who are in the theatre industry you’ll find it funny knowing first-hand the frustration that comes from staying at a dress rehearsal until 1am or the panic that comes from handling a crisis backstage mid-show while having to go on stage in seconds as if nothing is wrong. If you aren’t actively involved in the theatre world, this show will certainly give you a unique insight into what performers and stage management teams experience during a live show. It was a fun night out at the theatre and I greatly enjoyed all the laughs! "Noises Off" runs now through February 8. You can purchase tickets here: https://tickets.bcfootlighters.com/show/noisesoff