Review: NOISES OFF at SF Playhouse

For its 23rd season opener, SF Playhouse presents Michael Frayn’s outrageous theatrical farce. Given the current political farce we’re subjected to daily, why not go to the theatre and have a good laugh at theatre itself. Frayn’s Noises Off was a huge hit in 1982, with subsequent revivals and touring productions following. Winner of the Olivier Award for Best Play, we follow a hapless troupe of actors struggling to stage a production of the door slamming, sardine obsessed, sex farce Nothing On. SF Playhouse is no stranger to madcap comedies, having previously staged The Play that Goes Wrong, Clue and The 39 Steps, and Noises Off must be the cream of the crop of that genre.

Bill English helms this production and does an outstanding job of coordinating the choreographed madness and over-the-top slapstick routines. Assembling a fine ensemble cast, the play within a play concatenates the original three acts into two, each performing Act One of the play. We see a dress rehearsal which introduces the characters, a matinee  a month later, and finally a performance near the end of the run. The production is plagued by missed cues, forgotten dialogue, failing props and poor relationships in the troupe.

Like its neighbor Les Misérables, currently onstage at the Orpheum, Noises Off hopes to wow its audiences with a scenic design wow moment meant to dazzle and amaze. Scenic designer Heather Kenyon pulls it off with a stunning revolving stage displaying the back of house where we can see the bedlam ensuing among cast and techs as the play devolves into chaos. It’s a fantastic opportunity to see what transpires backstage and gives both English and his cast the prefect opportunity for comic slapstick that moves like a Chaplin or Keaton silent film.

The Nothing On plot is a silly sex farce with women in their undies, men dropping their pants and implied sex. But it’s nothing compared to what’s happening with the troupe. The director is sleeping with both an actress and the tech. There’s a drunk, an actor who faints at the sight of blood, an actress who frequently loses a contact lens, and a middle-aged television star involved with the much younger actor who speaks in double talk. The ensemble cast includes SF faves: Liz Sklar, Louis Parnell, Patrick Russell, Julie Eccles, Joe Ayers, Sophia Alawi, Nima Rakhshanifar, Jamiel St. Rose, and Vivienne Truong.

My problem is with the glacial pace of the first act with its staging redundancies, and the final act which repeats the first act for the third time belaboring the comedy. The middle act is when Noises Off soars. Absurdism on the stage is where it belongs.

Noises Off continues through November 8th.