"Noises Off" throws the audience a twist playing off a sly bedroom comedy called "Nothing On," showing the audience what really happens when cheating, jealousy and confusion collide simultaneously behind the scenes of a second-rate British comedy.
Written by Michael Frayn, this FMCT show starts out normally, until confusion runs rampant in the simplest of opening scenes, even though it is only hours before their opening performance.
And it just goes downhill from there, as director Lloyd Davis, played by SU librarian Larry Schwartz, attempts to bring together this bumbling group of actors for their final rehearsal before showtime.
Take note all of you budding SU theater majors: this farce of a play must reflect what all aspiring actors dream about in their absolute worst nightmare.
But in the FMCT's 51st season, "Noises Off" is far from a nightmare. The quality of acting that makes up this theater group is superb. From the tongue-twisted leading man Matthew Greseth to the show-stealing deaf thespian Selsdon, played by Gene Stillwell, this cast pulls off a great performance.
Confusion does account for a small part of the play. The start of the second act is a little hard to figure out, simply because we have no idea who is sleeping with whom after a month on the road. But once the audience gets clued in to the bedroom jealousies, it turns into a great roller coaster ride of physical humor.
The "Noises Off" set is also quite impressive. Turning 180 degrees in between acts is a show unto itself. If you do not need to stretch, I would suggest watching how they turn this gigantic English Tudor house almost effortlessly.
One thing I've noticed of this play, is that the name of the Director changes all the time. In the LHS production, I believe his name was Lloyd Dallas. In the movie version (starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeves) his name was Lloyd Somethingorother (sorry, I forgot) and in the version of the play the official review is from, his name is Lloyd Davis. I don't know why that is. Well, the play is Noises Off. That was my 3rd show at LHS, and it went great (with a few mishaps, of course). Let's see... it was the winter play, I believe the 5th and 6th of february, and cold a flu season was just under way. Half the crew was sick, or fast on thier way, and only part of the set was built with a week and a half left til opening night. Yikes. I'll get someone elses pictures of the set for you, so you can see how truely impressive it really is. Well, the first night was going along nicely, until the 3rd act, when Teal (Belinda Blair/Flavia Brendt) came down with lharengitis. Fortunatly it went along nicely with the disasterous mishaps of the 3rd act, but the next night it had to be fixed. Oh well. Enough rambling. Onto the credits, so we can get outta here before diner:
Dotty Otley/Mrs. Clackett: Lauren Toner
Lloyd Dallas: Chris Brian
Gary Lejeunne: Jason Starr
Belinda Blair/Flavia Brendt: Teal Spencer
Vicki: Liz Vital
Tim: Adam Olzouka (i spelled it wrong. don't kill me)
Selsdon: Andrew Hannah
Poppy: Angela Messerli
Freddy: Tim Heck
Here is a picture of what the set looked like, front and back, for the most part. It wasn't the LHS set, but rather the Binghampton Universities set. They look a lot alike, so you'll get the idea.
Pretty impressive, huh?