Review of Noises Off at Milton Keynes Theatre

Michael Frayn’s 1982 play Noises Off is perhaps British farce at its most chaotic and has created a vast number of spin-off plays of its ilk, no less more successful than The Play That Goes Wrong, which you can see a heavy influence upon. The chaos in question, much like that influenced play, is the play within a play structure, a play titled Nothing On. The production is on a constant edge of disaster as we see, through three acts, a dress rehearsal, a behind-the-scenes scene of often silent slapstick and finally the catastrophic onstage spectacle to culminate the show. So, after over forty years, is this still the cracker it was back then?

The simple answer is yes, Michael Frayn's show is remarkably well structured to sustain longevity, but, maybe at the interval you might not realise that, as the first act is, at times clunky, wordy, and not as funny as you might expect of such a successful play. However, as the second and third acts play out, you realise how astute Frayn has been. You see to gain as much amusement from those acts, and there is much humour, you need to be very familiar with the material, and that is what Frayn and Noises Off does. It all pays off superbly.

It helps, of course, that the cast is of great quality, with a good mix of familiar faces from the screen, Liza Goddard and Matthew Kelly, and those more on the stage, such as Simon Coates, all bring mostly their A-game to the show.

Goddard has great fun as the sardine-obsessed Dotty, on the constant edge of confusion and declining continuously as the show, and the tour of Nothing On continues. Matthew Kelly has less to do, but what he does, shows his usual brilliant comic timing and mannerisms as drunkerd performer Selsdon. He secretes himself in the audience at the start of the show, and rather alarming, it happened to be directly behind this fair reviewer!

Also, partial to a little audience lurking was Mark Middleton as director of the piece, Lloyd Dallas. Middleton was on as an understudy for the unavailable Simon Shepherd, and he gave a tremendously strong performance and deservedly earned his individual bow at curtain call. Also cracking was Simon Coates as the bumbling, nervous, overthinking Frederick, and probably gave the funniest performance of the show. It is a cracking character, it has to be said.

All of the cast are in fact great and show a distinct strength of control on the show, working strongly as a team, which is key to making disaster look so perfect. Some of the stagings of falls and tumbles are a little overegged at times, except for Dan Fredenburgh's brilliant comic stair tumble in the role of the on-edge performer Garry. However the clowness, banana slip style makes perfect sense in a ridiculous farce like this.

Director Lindsay Posner has worked well to keep everything speedy and a certain freshness to this forty-year-old show, especially in an age of many younger players in the genre. The show plays out on a delightfully designed set from Simon Higlett, and this added to some very Fawlty Towers-reminiscent music from Will Stuart, makes the whole evening rather delightfully quaint and British.

Noises Off is highly entertaining and fun, which without question improves as the evening goes on, and forms a delightful deviation from many musicals that have most recently been doing the rounds. Spiffing good fun!

A crisp, chaotic comedy with some stellar performances.
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Performance reviewed: Tuesday 21st November 2023 at Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes.

Noises Off runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday 25th November 2023.

Further details about Milton Keynes Theatre can be found at http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre/

Photos: Pamela Raith Photography