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If there's one thing that the theatre, and indeed its audience, enjoys, it's a backstage — or even onstage — comedy that pokes good-natured fun at that lovable old business called show. Noises Off is the doyen of this genre and a host of lesser impersonators have followed in its gleeful wake.
As the title of this piece suggests, there’s more of the same on offer here. We might have seen it all a number of times before, but doors that won’t open, missed cues and messed-up lines are somehow never not funny.
The conceit here is simple: the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society is putting on a 1920s country house murder mystery, but the trouble is that they are emphatically not very good. At least, says the Basil Fawlty-esque director (Henry Shields, who co-wrote for Mischief Theatre along with fellow actors Henry Lewis and Jonathan Sayer), there’s a full quotient of cast members this time, unlike in that memorable past production, Two Sisters.
Cue an evening of escalating mayhem, as the dialogue goes out of sync, the concussed leading lady (Charlie Russell) has to be winched out of a window and the whole set teeters perpetually on the brink of collapse.
It’s not sophisticated and it’s certainly over-extended; the show’s one-act Fringe origins aren’t hard to spot. Yet, along with the rest of the enthusiastic audience, I laughed continually. Director Mark Bell also offers some ingenious, not to mention precision-drilled, physical comedy. You have to be meticulous to make things look this chaotic.
Have a glass — or two — of wine beforehand and enjoy the ride.
Until Feb 2018
