Noises Off
A comedy that was just... off
2 stars
Hailed as ‘iconic’ and as ‘the funniest farce ever written’, I thought I was in for a treat when I went to see Noises Off at the Garrick Theatre. Having been revived on Broadway various times, I was sure that the play would be nothing short of magnificent. Oh, boy, was I wrong.
Noises Off is pretty much one of the earlier examples of a play-within-a-play. Divided into three acts, the first act focuses on the technical rehearsal (the night before the official opening), the second act on the opening night, and the final act on the closing night, months down the line, displaying the sheer incompetence of both cast and crew in a fictional play called Nothing On. The Noises Off audience gets to watch the events unfold both from where the Nothing On audience would be sat and from the backstage at different points in the show.
Overall the cast is very strong. There isn’t too much acting involved, as the play relies heavily on physical comedy, but what acting there is is done really well. Where the cast really deserves credit is the incredible precision of their movement throughout the play, shutting and opening doors at exactly the right moments , throwing props around and moving through the precise choreography required for the show to work at all.
Unfortunately, while impressive, the physical comedy just isn’t funny. What I thought would be a laugh-out-loud evening consisted of maybe a few giggles. Some members of the audience seemed to really enjoy it - sadly,I found their unrestrained hilarity funnier than what was on stage. I might have given the show a pass had it contained any deeper message behind the unsuccessful hilarity, but unfortunately it was entirely devoid of one.
While I really don’t like the term ‘cringeworthy’, I can’t think of any other way to describe the play, as the humour was extremely cheap throughout. I get the attempts by the play trying to symbolise life itself and how it is often a bigger mess than anticipated, but as an audience member, it is only possible to come to this conclusion if you are forcing yourself to come to a conclusion. Overall, although a completely harmless bit of staging, Noises Off fails to deliver either the promised laughs or a point to the gauche buffoonery.
