12 June 2012

Noises Off by Michael Frayn

Dotty Otley - Caroline Wildi (understudy to Celia Imrie)
Lloyd Dallas - Robert Glenister
Garry Lejeune - Jamie Glover
Brooke Ashton - Lucy Briggs-Owen
Poppy Norton-Taylor - Alice Bailey Johnson
Frederick Fellowes - Jonathan Coy
Belinda Blair - Janie Dee
Tim Allgood - Paul Ready
Selsdon Mowbray - Karl Johnson

Directed by Lindsay Posner
Designed by Peter McKintosh

See during it's transferred run from the Old Vic to the beautiful Novello Theatre.
Grabbed a last minute freebie from ShowFilmFirst and was given a perfect seat in the dress circle with full and comprehensive view of the delicious idiocy of the stage antics.


The writing in this farcical witnessing of a farce is absolutely beautiful and as tight as a drum but in the wrong hands, could be a sickening disaster.



The cast for tonight's performance were faultless and no doubt buoyed along by the effusive audience who could hardly contain themselves. I am not aware of the nature of Ms Imrie's disposition and whilst I wish her well, I certainly didn't miss her with her role being in the safe hands of Ms Wildi.

One senses that this cast are having much too good a time for something they must regard as work. Like a well-oiled machine, they prat-fall their way through the most idiotic of set-ups in a manner that lead me to wonder if Busby Berkeley could have made a water-based version. (Is there a limit on the number of hyphenated words in one sentence?)

Of course, enormous credit must go to the scene handlers for turning the whole set round so efficiently for the final act.

If you were sitting anywhere near me, I can only apologise if my convulsing alarmed you in any way. When Karl Johnson pointedly said 'every word' I thought I may have to be sedated.

Surely, there will never be a time when a revival of this piece wont be welcome.