Skip to main content

Noises Off

Kings Theatre, Glasgow
5 stars
Doors and sardines. These two elements are the essence of theatre, 
according to director Lloyd Dallas in Michael Frayn’s ingenious 
theatrical in-joke, which takes every actor’s nightmare and magnifies 
it to epically grotesque proportions. When the play first appeared in 
1982, the sort of trouser-dropping farce Frayn so magnificently 
pastiched was still a bums on seats staple of the commercial touring 
circuit. More than three decades on, and Robin Housemonger’s play, 
Nothing On, may be even more anachronistic, but it remains an instantly 
recognisable stalwart which refuses to lay down and die.

Lindsay Posner’s revival of Frayn’s play was first seen at the Old Vic, 
and now takes meta-ness to new heights by hitting the touring circuit 
the play has itself become a staple of. It begins quietly enough, as 
Dallas’ company of insecure drama queens and ego-maniacs go through 
their final rehearsals of Housemonger’s play. As inter-personal 
tensions between grand dame Dottie Otley, leading man Gary Lejeune, old 
lags Freddie, Belinda and Selsdon, would-be starlet Brooke and others 
rear their head, real life dramas take increasingly chaotic precedence. 
This comes to a head in the second act, in which the same scene is seen 
 from back-stage several weeks into the tour. By the final act, set on 
the tour’s final night, Nothing On has been transformed into an 
eye-poppingly absurd shambles.

All of which makes for an exhaustingly relentless tour de force led by 
Neal Pearson as Lloyd and a wonderful Maureen Beattie as Dottie. The 
sheer slickness, comic timing and physical bravura of the cast leaves 
one reeling in what must be one of the greatest comic constructions 
ever staged.

The Herald, May 28th 2013

ends

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ron Butlin - The Sound of My Voice

When Ron Butlin saw a man who’d just asked him the time throw himself under a train on the Paris Metro, it was a turning point in how his 1987 novel, The Sound Of My Voice, would turn out. Twenty years on, Butlin’s tale of suburban family man Morris Magellan’s existential crisis and his subsequent slide into alcoholism is regarded as a lost classic. Prime material, then, for the very intimate stage adaptation which opens in the Citizens Theatre’s tiny Stalls Studio tonight. “I had this friend in London who was an alcoholic,” Butlin recalls. “He would go off to work in the civil service in the morning looking absolutely immaculate. Then at night we’d meet, and he’s get mega-blootered, then go home and continue drinking and end up in a really bad state. I remember staying over one night, and he’d emerge from his room looking immaculate again. There was this huge contrast between what was going on outside and what was going on inside.” We’re sitting in a café on Edinburgh’s south sid

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) 1. THE STONE ROSES    Don’t Stop ( Silvertone   ORE   1989) The trip didn’t quite start here for what sounds like Waterfall played backwards on The Stone Roses’ era-defining eponymous debut album, but it sounds

Big Gold Dreams – A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989

Disc 1 1. THE REZILLOS (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures (12/77)  2. THE EXILE Hooked On You (8/77) 3. DRIVE Jerkin’ (8/77) 4. VALVES Robot Love (9/77) 5. P.V.C. 2 Put You In The Picture (10/77) 6. JOHNNY & THE SELF ABUSERS Dead Vandals (11/77) 7. BEE BEE CEE You Gotta Know Girl (11/77) 8. SUBS Gimme Your Heart (2/78) 9. SKIDS Reasons (No Bad NB 1, 4/78) 10. FINGERPRINTZ Dancing With Myself (1/79)  11. THE ZIPS Take Me Down (4/79) 12. ANOTHER PRETTY FACE All The Boys Love Carrie (5/79)  13. VISITORS Electric Heat (5/79) 14. JOLT See Saw (6/79) 15. SIMPLE MINDS Chelsea Girl (6/79) 16. SHAKE Culture Shock (7/79) 17. HEADBOYS The Shape Of Things To Come (7/79) 18. FIRE EXIT Time Wall (8/79) 19. FREEZE Paranoia (9/79) 20. FAKES Sylvia Clarke (9/79) 21. TPI She’s Too Clever For Me (10/79) 22. FUN 4 Singing In The Showers (11/79) 23. FLOWERS Confessions (12/79) 24. TV21 Playing With Fire (4/80) 25. ALEX FERGUSSON Stay With Me Tonight (1980) 1. THE REZILL