Do it for the sardines! Maybe also for the doors and the boxes! But mostly for the sardines! Sardines— sardines!!! They’re everywhere! And they’re all over the set of Noises Off! at Other Voices Theatre in Frederick. Directed by Matthew Bannister, this high-end, high-octane, full-comedy farce is just the laugh the doctor ordered! Pandemic blues got you down? Get out of the house and get tickets to this show— you’ll laugh out loud, you’ll roll on the floor laughing, you might actually laugh your arse off!
In a show with ten characters, but only nine of them are people, one cannot forego mentioning the massive efforts of Set Designer Ira Domser, the Set Construction Team (Bill Pressley, Ed Gabb, Syndi Huth, Walter Dutton, Denis Delehanty, Scottie Pitts, Jeanne Lloyd, Allison Seaton, Miranda Trautman, Jesse Rota, and Emmaline Tolley), and certainly not the ‘Set Turning Crew’ (Steve Knapp, Syndi Huth, Jenn Maschal-Lorms, Charles Boyce, Sean Hickey, Pat Dickinson, Hanna Dufresne, Jeanne Lloyd, Megan McGee, Lauren Downing, Kiersten Gasemy, Steve Cairns, Edd Gabb, Miranda Trautman.) Noises Off! is an epic play-within-a-play and the set of that play is the zenith of all sets, second possibly only to the type of set you see in The Play That Goes Wrong. It’s a massive two-story home interior with eight doors, an enormous window, functioning stairs, and intricate decorations. And it pops apart like puzzle pieces, rotates around, and has to be a completely functional (and safe) backstage setup for the second act, which shows the audience the backstage chaos and calamity of a production on its feet when all the proverbial shtick hits the fan. Domser and the aforementioned million-person teams make this magnificent monstrosity a roaring reality that plays the ‘tenth’ character in the performance as so much of the comedic gold in this show is mined from the characters’ interactions with the set. A shout and nod has to go to Scenic Artists Christine Levy and Jeff Elkins as well as Properties Masters & Set Dressers Pat Dickinson and Jenn Maschal-Lorms for all of their detailed effort in making this set one-of-a-kind and truly remarkable.
In another life, Director Matthew Bannister perhaps was/is playwright Michael Frayn if his working intimate knowledge of the production is any indication. (Couldn’t at all have anything to do with the fact that he’s mounted something like 400 productions of it in the last 40 years of life…exaggerations notwithstanding, you’d be hard pressed to find a creative in the DMV area who has had more work on/with Noises Off!) This keen understanding of script, staging, and all the nuanced characters and all the quirks results in a brilliant execution of this production from top to tail and everything in-between. The pacing is razor sharp and delivered with exacting precision. The comedy— also verbal but primarily physical— lands with a wallop and has the audience side-splitting with stitches. Bannister finds little nuggets of these zany characters and exacerbates them to a degree that heightens the comedy of the show without cheapening the effect or turning the performers into pantomime caricatures. This is particularly evident with the Gary character, showcasing those little nods of unreasonable jealousy very early on in the first act. The physical antics that gradually grow into exponentially exploitable chaos all throughout the second act and into the third act simply defies description, but it can be promised that it will have your guts aching from laughing so hard.
One of the most underrated characters in the show is the stage-hand character of Kim, played by Megan McGee. Bringing a ferocious presence to the stage, McGee really makes the Kim character an integral part of all the shenanigans and chicanery that’s happening all throughout the second and third acts. Her scene-stealing meltdown at the top of the third act is just priceless, and all of the back-and-forth with the coats, flowers, and alcohol during the second act is a fine showcase of McGee’s physical comedy capabilities. Sideling along in the shadow of the Kim character is the dippy stage-manager character of Poppy (Lauren Downing.) With brilliant animated facial expressions, Downing really lets the audience know exactly how well she is not handling the maelstrom of madness that’s brewing up backstage; this is particularly true during the second act ‘call to places and seats.’
What good is a play-within-a-play, which is a proper sendup to theatre companies and their woes everywhere, without that one older actor who landed the role because he’s somebody’s somebody and also has a drinking problem? For Noises Off! that’s the Selsdon Mowbray (Steve Cairns) character. Constantly bungling through his lines, bumbling around on the stage, and mishearing everything, Cairns digs his heels into the throwaway character and gives him some heft upon the stage. Watching Cairns dally about in the ‘backstage scenes’ of the second act is pure comic genius as he’s constantly snatching up a bottle of booze and rocketing away with it at top speed!
Spending a great deal of time giving chase in the second act— mostly after Selsdon and his stolen spirits— is Belinda Blair (Melissa Powell.) Serving as the in-show character emollient, meant to smooth over the rising tempers of both actors and the director, Powell takes to the character like a kindly mother, attempting to keep the peace, acting as the buffer between bombastic blasts from the director and inane questions throttled from the actors. Powell has animated facial expressions that serve her character well, particularly when it comes to seeing the chaos implode before her eyes in the second act. There is a lot of mime and gesture work in the second act— as everything that is happening backstage is meant to be silent as there is a ‘production’ happening on the front side of the set (which is turned away from the audience, but little bits and pieces can be seen through the large window and whenever someone opens a door)— and these silent actions flow flawlessly from Powell, particularly when she’s trying to prevent blood, injury, and murder.
Every cast has one. That actor who just needs to know why his character is doing something, even if he’s the third tree from the left in the field scene. And while the Frederick Fellowes (Andrew Shifler) character isn’t living scenery, he fits the bill for that one actor. Shifler is a comic delight when it comes to plaguing the in-show director with questions; they fly from his mouth in naïve earnest, which only serves to provoke the director’s ire. When Shifler starts tripping all around the stage, stumbling with a bloody kerchief, it adds to the hilarity of the devolving nonsense that’s playing out in the scene. There are a great many moments, particularly in the second and third act, where Shifler’s physical delivery really has the audience screaming with laughter, and that’s saying something considering everything else that’s happening in those moments.
Speaking of the in-show director character (not to be confused with the show’s actual director, though in some productions the show’s actual director has stepped into the role of ‘Lloyd the Director’, however this is not that), Ron Ward does a fine job of filling the shoes of the pompous, overly-distraught, and highly-strung Director Lloyd Dallas. Starting off hidden from sight, like a true ‘God’ voice, Ward’s character descends from on-high (somewhere in the house) to the stage as the show gets underway; the play kicks off on ‘final dress’ before the play-within-a-play opens. Ward is cutting, sharp-tongued, and well-versed in his verbal comic delivery. He’s also packing punches in the physical comedy department, particularly when it comes to a certain prickly moment in the second act and a utterly bewildered befuddlement in the third.
Sardines, sardines— do it for Dotty (Susan Thornton)! The withering glances that Susan Thornton throws at Director Lloyd every time her character mucks up during the opening moments could shrivel even a ten-foot saguaro cactus. Thornton is primed with bitter humors, showcasing to the audience the Dotty’s character’s true nature. She’s a ‘star of a certain age’ who is tolerated despite her immense muck-ups because of her sheer talent, and her investment in the show. (That statement applies to the character of Dotty and how well Thornton portrays that character!) Thornton really hits the boards running in the third act, which is where the show goes to hilarious hell-in-a-handbag and has the audience bouncing in their seats whenever the character goes up on a line— which is essentially the entire third act— delivering havoc-inducing-hilarity moment after moment.
If every cast has that one whiny, questioning actor, then they certainly have that one— you know— well— Garry (Sean Byrne.) While there is no true ‘main character’ or even really a guiding protagonist in Noises Off!, the Garry character might come close. Byrne is a comic genius, laying out moment after moment from the time he comes busting through the door with his boxes to the final moments of the play. Trying desperately to hold things together during the first act and having completely given up and given in to being a creator of chaos by the final act, it’s both a delight and a scream to watch Byrne progress the Garry-character through these stages. Byrne has a firm hold on how to make a right fool of the Garry character when it comes to physical tumbles— stairs, prat-falls, etc.— and there’s nothing like watching a character turn into a maniacal lunatic when jealousy gets involved: see Byrne’s Garry all through the second act.
Stealing the show with her audience-cheating grins and looks of sheer, unadulterated panic, Mallorie Stern gives new meaning to the phrase ‘deer in the headlights’ when she takes up the role of Brooke Ashton. While there is very little substance written into the role of Brooke— she’s the stereotypical bimbo character who clearly got the job because she’s bonking the director— Stern gives such a punch of personality to the character that you cannot take her eyes off of her. The Brooke character is also that actor who has zero improvisational skills and will literally repeat her lines and actions rote-verbatim as they were learned no matter what chaos is happening all around her. Stern delivers these moments of rote-verbatim with such conviction that you’re falling out of your seat laughing at her antics. When the Brooke character gets called out— literally anyone trying to get her attention or get her out of a moment of the ‘in-scene’ play— Stern’s body does this rigid-freeze-up and she blurts out ‘Sorry?’ as if she’s just been zapped to the stage from some distant planet and it’s hysterical. Her wildly animated facial expressions are uproarious, particularly when she’s lost a contact! Mallorie Stern might just steal the show with all of her crazy carryings-on, and that’s saying something for a show like this!
While we cannot maintain that no sardines were harmed during the producing of this production, it can be firmly stated that you will enjoy yourself, you will laugh yourself silly— possibly to tears— and that a better night could not be had at live theatre. Do yourself a favor and get tickets to see Other Voices Theatre’s Noises Off!
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 25 minutes with two intermissions.
Noises Off! plays through March 20, 2022 with Other Voices Theatre at The Performance Factory— 244-B South Jefferson Street in Frederick, MD. Tickets are available by calling the box office at (301) 662-3722 or by purchasing them in advance online.
