THREE FARCES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!
Noises Off (Theatre Royal, Bath, and touring) Verdict: The good laugh we all need ★★★★☆
MICHAEL FRAYN’S 1982 Noises Off is actually three farces for the price of one. You certainly get more than your money’s worth in Lindsay’s Posner’s feverishly funny 40th anniversary production, which opened last night in Bath.
It begins relatively quietly, as a pastiche of a trouser-dropping door-slamming sex farce entitled Nothing On, staged by a company of second-rate, worn-out actors.
Cut-glass Dotty (Felicity Kendal) is deliciously miscast as Northern char Mrs Clackett, mangling her lines and muddling her props, with Kendal’s characteristic mixture of elegance and chipmunk cheerfulness.
A hard-of-hearing, vacant Selsdon (Matthew Kelly) plays a burglar, when sober enough to remember his cue. Jonathan Coy’s fusspot Freddie is suddenly questioning the psychological motivation of his tissue-thin character, Philip, testing the patience of snooty director Lloyd (Alexander Hanson). Unmistakably attired in Trevor Nunn’s trademark denim shirt and jeans, Lloyd clearly thinks his talents are wasted on this tosh.
The sublime second act, set backstage, teeters on the edge of calamity as the private passions, jealousies and rivalries invade the public performance.
Joseph Millson is outstanding as the increasingly demonic Garry (playing Roger the randy estate agent), whose suspicion that Dotty, his off-stage squeeze, is carrying on with Freddie is fuelled by finding her in what appear to be compromising positions with various actors every time he comes offstage.
The final act, back on the set of Nothing On, descends into total chaos.
Noises Off may be old-fashioned, but the precision engineering and craftsmanship guarantee a couple of hours of total escapism. Pure comic bliss.