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 | Noises Off State Theatre Director: Adam Cook The Playhouse. Until Sat 19 Nov  State Theatre's artistic director Adam Cook has made a complete farce of 'Noises Off' and I'm sure its British playwright Michael Frayn wouldn't have it any other way. Adelaide audiences would know Frayn from State's unforgettable production of his Tony-award winning play 'Copenhagen' in 2002, but this is a horse of a different colour. While 'Copenhagen' was an erudite investigation of the origins of atomic theory and intrigue leading to the atomic bomb, 'Noises Off' is a comic explosion.We join Otstar Productions during their final rehearsal of 'Nothing On' at the Grand Theatre at Weston-Super-Mare and things aren't going all that well. The sardines are left on stage, actors enter before others exit, and motivations have yet to be worked out. But no problem - they still have twelve hours. The director, played by the wonderful Marco Chiappi - who seems to be all the Seinfeld characters rolled into one - has a sense of urgency whereas his cast have an "It'll be alright on the night" attitude, although they are preparing for the drinker amongst them to be drunk. That's funny enough, but in the second act, designer Graham MacLean's two storey Tudor mansion interior is turned around and Act One of 'Nothing On' is repeated from behind scenes. With many a relationship amongst the cast and crew under pressure, the backstage shenanigans are for all to see. In the third act, Act One again gets an airing - from the stalls this time - and Frayn shows that he is intimately familiar with every actor's nightmare. Director Adam Cook would have had to drill his actors like crack counter-terrorist troops so the pratfalls of the play don't happen for real. There are so many opportunities for things to go wrong. Split-second timing is required in getting on and off and "Pass the Cactus" can be a painful game in the wrong hands. But the stars must have aligned for so many actors to perform some of the funniest business I have ever seen them do. Michael Habib steals his scenes as the pompous and precious Garry Lejeune. Geoff Revell did his best-ever funny business as the delicate Frederick Fellowes. The forgetful Dotty Otley was played by Bridget Walters with sweet naivety. Caroline Mignone's cheerful Belinda Blair used subtle subterfuge to disunite the company. But the most impressive element was the complex physical business accomplished by the actors which consistently seemed on the verge of resembling the Otstar company; they go up and down the stairs like rats in a maze and there is so much happening you don't know where to look. Michael Frayn started writing the play in 1977 as a one-acter, converted it to the present form in 1982, and was still re-writing in 2000. Even so, the relationship issues weren't clear enough in the second act and I can understand how a Prague theatre group performed the play for ten years without realising they left out the third act. But you cannot help but marvel at Frayn's complicated roadmap... the slapstick, the split-second timing, the painful expressions of embarrassment when thing go wrong are so funny. We do love to laugh at other's misfortune. This is an excellent end to a very successful season at State for 2005. All's well that ends well.  | |
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