Sardines and Slamming Doors

Noises Off –  Windy City Playhouse

As elderly housekeeper Mrs. Clackett begins exiting while balancing the telephone, a newspaper and a ubiquitous plate of sardines, she suddenly stops (as does her Cockney accent) and she begins questioning herself. “I take the sardines? No, I leave the sardines. No, I take the sardines…” Audiences unfamiliar with Michael Frayn’s laugh-a-minute farce begin to wonder if the actress (Amy Carle, brilliant as Dotty Otley playing the character of Mrs. Clackett) has lost her way…or her mind. And indeed her character does have problems with all her lines and stage business, but that’s the gimmick behind this play-within-a-play. A so-so farce entitled “Nothing On” is being rehearsed by a third-rate British theatrical company, but the audience only comes to understand that this is a rehearsal when Lloyd, their hard-working director (nicely played with manic mastery by handsome Mike Tepeli) interrupts Dotty’s muttering to provide some much-needed direction from the auditorium aisles. The “dress rehearsal” (or is it “the technical”?) continues to stop and start as each new problem arises. With them come new complications and even broader laughter.

For the typical audience member, this is not only an entertaining farce, complete with its requisite fast-pace, slamming doors, clothes coming off and naughty innuendos bouncing between its broadly-written characters; it’s also a brilliantly-disguised look at what it takes to actually mount a show. Theater folks in the audience will find the show a side-splitting reminder of what can and will inevitably go wrong during any production; but for those familiar with this particular script, they know that this is a show that requires boundless energy, razor-sharp timing and carefully choreographed staging.

Opening night’s audience was left breathless from laughing and offered a well-deserved standing ovation for the company’s hard work. Some of director Scott Weinstein’s staging, however, while it may have been rehearsed to precision, seems a bit sloppy in performance. This seems truer in the third act, when the entire play-within-a-play seems to fall completely apart.

Michael Frayn wrote a script that overflows with comic bits. His Act II backstage look at the same play being performed before a live audience, but with the actors and director having to cope with all kinds of offstage dramas, is pure genius. In Weinstein’s production, instead of the set being turned around, the audience is directed to sit in the theatre’s actual backstage. It’s a tight squeeze for the theatergoers, with the best seats in the front row. Because so much occurs in this act, including fast-paced entrances and exits, the director’s attempt to appease his two romantic interests, a revengeful jealousy that escalates to include the entire cast, it’s vital that the audience knows where to focus its attention at every moment. Often this is less successful than it could be. 

In Act III, where the audience is returned to their original house seats, everyone is familiar by now with what’s suppose to be happening in the play-within-the-play. However, since the cast has supposedly been touring together for many months, their backstage dramas have escalated beyond their onstage work. The audience continues to enjoy the backstabbing and feuding, and Mr. Weinstein’s work is evident. But halfway through Act III the focus becomes so muddled as to be confusing. So much is happening that it’s not clean and sharp. As a result, some of the comedy is lost. The play doesn’t end with a bang, it just sort of loses steam; but, as in all productions, as the run of this show continues the kinks will undoubtedly be worked out.

That’s not to say that this “Noises Off” isn’t an excellent production. Scott Weinstein’s cast is uniformly superb, with many standout performances. Scott Duff is a likable, Monty Python-esque Frederick Fellowes. His reactions to violence and blood become even funnier as the play progresses; but nothing tops seeing this actor hopping up and down the stairs with his pants around his ankles. As pompous leading man Garry LeJeune (playing a randy real estate agent Roger Tramplemain), gangly Ryan McBride is terrific. Always ready to pontificate upon any subject, but never fully finishing a sentence, McBride is especially hilarious in Act III. He tries to keep the play going, while dealing with his inexperienced costar (the hilarious Rochelle Therrien, as bimbo Brooke Ashton), a young woman who’s always losing her contact lenses while still spouting all her lines in order, no matter what happens onstage. Ms. Therrien’s wild, melodramatic gestures are the icing on the cake. 

Erica Bittner draws the audience’s sympathy and laughter as put-upon assistant stage manager and female understudy, Poppy Norton-Taylor. Will Casey as alcoholic seasoned thespian, Selsdon Mowbray, is constantly missing his entrances and forgetting his lines. The character is also selectively hard-of-hearing, making for some very funny moments. Amy Rubenstein is the busybody Belinda Blair, who seems to know everyone else’s business. She’s that actress who’s positive Pollyanna attitude drives everyone crazy, especially as she joyfully plows onward and upward, trying to make everyone happy. Alexander Quinones’ poor, put-upon backstage handy man Tim Allgood earns much laughter and admiration for being the Jack-of-all-trades who keeps the production going. He’s particularly funny in Act II, trying to satisfy Lloyd’s demands for flowers.

Appropriately labeled “the funniest farce ever written” by the New York Post, this production is an hilarious way to begin the New Year. With its countless plates of sardines and slamming doors, this classic farce was obviously the inspiration for the recent Broadway in Chicago National Tour of “The Play That Goes Wrong.” Both are behind-the-scenes comedies that are always a treat for any audience. Between Jeffrey D. Kmiec’s gorgeous, two-level set, that also features a complete backstage design for Act II, Mike Durst’s superb lighting, Andrew Hatcher’s many unique property demands and Jessica Kuehnau’s perfectly appropriate costumes, this is one theatre experience Chicago audiences won’t soon forget. 

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented January 9-March 31 by Windy City Playhouse, 3014 W. Irving Park Rd., Chicago.

Tickets are available by calling the box office at 773-891-8985 or by going to www.windycityplayhouse.com.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.