[NEohioPAL] BERKO REVIEW: NOISES OFF (CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE)

[Roy Berko]

‘NOISES OFF’ at Cleveland Play House is entertaining, but…
 
Roy Berko
 
(Member,
American Theatre Critics Association)
 
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‘NOISES
OFF,’ now on stage at the Cleveland Play House, is a farce.  In fact, it is considered to be one of
the best written of the modern farces.  
 
A farce,
as the CPH program states, is “a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and
horseplay, typically including crude characterizations and ludicrously
improbably situations.”  As anyone
who has ever attempted to direct or act in a farce knows, it is hard work.  It is probably the most difficult of
theatrical formats to do well.
 
Though
they try hard, the cast and director of ‘NOISES OFF’ just don’t get it totally
right.  Not that the production is
bad, it’s not, it is quite entertaining.  But it is not of the quality, for example, of the great production I saw
in London of this show.  
 
Maybe seeing a British
play requires the British to do it.  The accents, the natural over-exaggeration, the bigger than life
characters, need that special Anglo touch.
 
The original staging
opened in 1982 in London to rave reviews.  A version of it opened in New York in
1983, starring  Dorothy Loudon.  It had moderate success, running 553
performances.  A film version was
made with Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve and John Ritter.  Good cast, bad flick.  A well respected critic wrote that the
film was "one of the worst ever made."
 
The plot to
‘NOISES OFF’ centers on a play within a play.  The fictional ‘NOTHING ON’ is a sex
comedy which finds the cast often running around in their underwear, running in
and out of doors, with no real purpose.  
 
The ‘NOISES
OFF’ segment finds us viewing three acts.  The first, a rehearsal the night before opening with the cast still fumbling with entrances and exits,
missed cues, misspoken lines, and bothersome props, most notably several plates
of sardines.
 
Act Two
portrays a performance one month later which reveals the deteriorating personal
relationships among the cast that have led to offstage shenanigans and onstage
bedlam.
 
In Act Three,
we see a performance near the end of the ten-week run, when personal friction
has continued to increase and everyone is bored and anxious to be done with the
play.   It contains one of the
most delightful death-defying down-the-stairs falls you’ll ever see.
 
Much of the
comedy should emerge from prat falls and general on and off-stage chaos.  There should be a sharp contrast
between players' on-stage and off-stage personalities. 
 
The CPH version,
under that direction of David Bell, tries hard for the slapstick.  But, because of inconsistent pacing,
some of it doesn’t work as well as possible.  As for the on-stage/off-stage personalities, the cast
generally fails.  The personalities
generally blend into one.
 
The play’s
success depends, to a great degree on the set.  Here, the CPH production shines as James Leonard Joy has
created the perfect setting.   In fact, the set is so effective that the audience universally sat in
their seats at the set change between the second and third act.  Unfortunately, after giving the viewers
a taste of how the set would be altered, the curtain was dropped and the rest
of the change hidden from view.  Bad choice.  The audience
moaned and there were actually a couple of boos when the curtain closed.  They wanted to see the stage hands do
their thing.
 
Standouts in
the cast are Christopher Kelly who is quite good as the mumphering Garry/Roger
and Linda Kimbrough as Dotty/Mrs. Clackett, the maid. 
 
CAPSULE JUDGMENT:   The CPH production of ‘NOISES OFF’ is quite entertaining, but doesn’t
reach the level of farce needed to really get the audience into a hysterical
mood.  As the play runs, maybe the
cast will pick up the pace and separate the on-stage from the off-stage
characterizations. 
 
‘NOISES OFF’ runs through October 26.  For tickets to CPH call 216-795-7000 or go to www.clevelandplayhouse.com.  For  a reduction on ticket prices, when you call the box office
use the promotion code FRIEND and get a $10 discount per ticket.
 
 
 Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 2008, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at http://royberko.info

His reviews can also be found on www.coolcleveland.com and NeOHIOpal (to subscribe visit http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/neohiopal.)