By Vanessa Chan
It was funnier from behind than in front, said the production team.
Noises Off, a brilliantly humorous and unrivalled backstage comedy, was presented by Queen’s College Music and Drama Society, produced by George Dance, Josh High and Ellie Buchanan, and directed by Alessio Mazza and Emma Parfitt. This amazing team exceeded expectations for a student theatre production with flawless performance and consistent tension.
The 1982 comedy Noises Off was written by Michael Frayn, who, after a performance of The Two of Us, decided that the show was funnier behind the scenes than in front. Following an ambitious director and his sub-par performers, Noises Off is a play inside a play. Nothing On, the absurd sexual comedy the cast and crew are cobbling together, is a one act farce of frolicking lovers, slamming doors, discarded clothing and embarrassing mishaps.
Noises Off adheres to the dramatic standard: absurdly funny characters, tightly guarded secrets, suspense from start to finish and cleverly crafted conflicts. The first act’s exquisite plot and character design excellently set-up the second and third acts.
Act one is the technical rehearsal. The scene opened on an eye-catching pink wall with a throwback pattern, a red chaise couch and retro set pieces including an antique television and landline telephone by set designer Louisa Fitzgerald. These props, combined with Clementine Salvi-Offer’s costumes and Amelie Archer and Maggie Gilby’s hair and makeup, transported the audience to the ’80s.
The night before the opening the fictitious cast is utterly unprepared: Brooke Ashton/Vicki (Bianca Galvin) battles her contacts and the director Lloyd Dallas’ (Tim Gilling) commands; Dotty Otley/Mrs. Clackett (Sophie King) is flustered by her sardine dish and bombarding calls; Frederick Fellowes/Phillip Brent (Hugh Miller) incessantly interrupts rehearsal; even stage manager Poppy Norton/Taylor (Issy Bonnin) misses cues and lines, driving the director crazy. This chaos was brilliantly portrayed by the cast, offering a clear picture of each character.
Placing the director in the front row served to project his breakdown and helplessness. As an audience our eyes focus on the stage, however, Queens pulled our gaze by placing a character within the audience. Hearing the heavy breaths and rapid paper flipping beside us was immersive, making us feel the director’s panic.
Act two takes place backstage on the opening night. Noises were off, but the chaos is ever-present. Lachlan Careedy, the lighting designer, did a fantastic job utilising every light to create a crowded, saturated backstage. Lachlan’s outstanding lighting dazzled the audience and contrasted with act one’s warm white light. The side boxes’ spotlights, a highlight of the performance, were stunning and ingenious, altered to simulate a lighting rig, they gave the audience a unique backstage perspective. There was also a red background light and lights facing the reverse, building a simulated onstage and offstage area.
Sam Brew’s sound design was commendable, with expertly timed sound effects (such as breaking glass and falling down the stairs) nailing the comedic elements. The characters’ voices would also alter, sounding distant when they entered or left backstage, which allowed the audience to distinguish between the two different performances taking place.
Act two and act one are closely linked, act two being, essentially, behind the scenes of act one. It’s impressive how well this connection is depicted, lines and actions shown in act one built upon and paid off in the second act. The individuals’ complicated relationships play a major effect in how they behave and the exchanges that result: romantic rivalry, lover’s fights, and interpersonal disputes leading to antics off-stage, on-stage chaos, and even the occasional axe.
The hilarious and dramatic Garry LeJeune/Roger (Charlie Stewart) dominated this act, and his chemistry with Dotty heated up the stage. Belinda Blair/Flavia Brent’s (Sophie Gray) panic—rushing to stop the chaos and hold Selsdon Mowbray/Burglar (Lili Wymond) back from drinking—emphasised the hilarity of the scene. The performative volatility was fascinating, perhaps even more so than Nothing On’s (the fictional play) script. Credit must be given to the creative team for writing and staging two scenes, onstage and offstage, at once. It may have been chaotic, but it was calculated chaos.
Act three was simply a disaster, as scripted. Everything that could’ve gone wrong did, the cast dealing with accidents and incidents that never occurred during the rehearsal. Within the play, that is.
The opening scene, with intoxicated Selsdon and frantic techie Timothy Allgood (Alex Krupp), foreshadows the chaos to come. The stage was rotated back-to-front, allowing us to view the opening night hijinks from the audience’s perspective. What do you do when an actor goes missing? Do you fill in their part? Ad-lib around them? The actors remain determined at all costs to cover up the mounting chaos, but it is not long before the plot is abandoned, leaving the more coherent characters desperately improvising towards some sort of end.
Although the play isn’t profound it provides a hilariously realistic parody of the theatre world. The show’s major obstacles are its shifting set and challenging slapstick humour: Noises Off has the power to silence an audience when performed by proper actors, but will devolve into a cacophony with the wrong ones. The piece’s chaos is both its greatest asset and biggest flaw.
It is funnier from behind than in front, said the audience.
Queen’s College’s Noises Off ran September 22nd to 24th at the new Union Theatre.
Vanessa Chan (she/her) is a Graphic Design student and lighting and set designer living in Naarm/Melbourne. Her recent theatrical work has been featured in The Hostage (MUCTG), Under the Influence (Four Letter Word Theatre) and Kill Mobile (MUCTG).
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