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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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It'll not be all right on the night
The cast in conflict rehearsal for Nothing On and making Noises Off Noises Off
The Nonentities
The Rose Theatre, Kidderminster
**** THE
Nonentities bravely take on the organised yet shambolic chaos that is
Noises Off. Michael
Frayn's 1982 farce is a play within a play, and both cast and crew rose
to the challenge of taking on board the performance and staging
logistics of this seemingly simple but technically complex production. The play is
set over three acts, but is in fact the first act of a touring
production viewed from the rehearsals in Act one, to the same scene
weeks later from behind the scenes, returning in Act three to an
audience’s perspective to witness its complete collapse near to the end
of its run. Director Tori
Wakeman suffered her own real calamity in inheriting the directors’
chair only three days before rehearsals but has done a good job of
piloting this piece through the storm of intended miscues and theatrical
failures. So it
begins with the cast of Nothing On,
a new farce, who are burning the midnight oil in rehearsals on the eve
of its opening night and things are far from prefect. Joan Wakeman plays
Mrs. Clackett the forgetful housekeeper to The Brents who are away `in
Spain’ and all seems normal until she forgets her cues and her sardines
prompting the director Lloyd Dallas to pop up from the audience to halt
the proceedings. From this point it’s clear that things are not going to
be normal as the interruptions gather pace. Enter then
Roger and Vicki played by Matt Gibbons and Harriet Poulton. Roger is
apparently the agent responsible for letting the property whilst the
Brents are abroad and he has convinced the shapely Vicki that it is his
house and takes her there for an afternoon of passion. Add to that
that the Brents themselves turn up, Philip and Flavia, portrayed by
Robert Graham and Sue Downing. They have snuck back into the country as
Spain, for them, is a tax avoidance exercise and not a holiday.
As the play
falters, it receives countless interjections from
director Lloyd played by
Chris Clarke, frustrated with his actors as the opening scene stumbles
forward until the entrance of the burglar. The hapless thief is played
by Stephen Downing and his character is clearly the worst for drink
adding yet another layer of disorganised yet organised fun. Finally the
scene grinds to a full halt and the stage and company manager, played by
Jenny Luke and Dan Taylor, are summoned on stage to help sort out the
impeding chaos.
As this was
the first night of the play it took a while to get things going. The
first act is instructional to the audience. It helps them get to know
the play
so they can clearly understand by act three just how far the script has
left the original.
This original
play dialogue is also important in act two where the whole set is now
reversed to see behind the scenes. However whilst the play continues out
of sight on the other side of the set to an imagined audience, much of
that dialogue is lost on the small stage of the Rose theatre. The fact
the play is underway adds to the tension of the backstage squabbles and
its loss meant that we are left with mostly the slapstick of the fracas.
Having said that, by the end of the scene, the level of chaos was still
coordinated well enough to be bad enough to have everyone laughing out
loud. The third Act
returns to the front audience view and by now the play they are playing
is a mess of accidents, adlibs and miscues .This was probably the
funniest part of the evening as by now it’s hard to spot what is
scripted and what is genuinely going wrong. In Frayn’s original version
he encouraged actors to add lib through this scene as the kind of
mistakes he was looking for are hard to reenact and so permitted the
actors to make the scene as genuine as possible. It’s quite
clear that everyone involved has had a great time bringing this
well-crafted farce to the stage and the hard working crew also received
a deserved round of applause for reversing the entire set in about five
minutes in direct view of the audience. Overall
it lacked the precision to maximize the full laughter potential of the
piece in exploiting the stereotypic theatrical tantrums and
personalities to the full. It’s still a highly entertaining production
and it clearly has involved a great deal of work for everyone involved
and therefore is guaranteed to gather pace and fall apart more
effectively as the performances continue. To 13-06-15 Jeff Grant
08-06-15 |
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