Noises Off starring Liza Goddard, Paul Bradley and Simon Shepherd staging at Nottingham Theatre Royal as part of its 40th anniversary tour
A worldwide comedy classic set to sweep people off their feet into an evening of chaos, silliness and lots of laughter has been brought to life on stage.
Multi award-winning farce – Noises Off – arrived at the Theatre Royal yesterday (Tuesday, January 30) and will be staged until Saturday directly from London’s West End.
Liza Goddard, Paul Bradley and Simon Shepherd head the cast of Michael Frayn’s play as part of a tour to mark its 40th anniversary.
The story which has three different acts is everything but organised. From start to finish, the mess and silliness, grow and grow and with it, the public laughs.
It all started with a chaotic rehearsal in Weston-super-Mare, to a disastrous behind scenes of the hilariously silent play, or so they tried, in Ashton-under-Lyne, to a performance in Stockon-on-Tees which an nothing but absolute shambles.
The first minutes of the play, I was intrigued with what was going on, are they practising the play that I am meant to watch or has it actually started? It didn’t take long to realise, no chance the actors could be this bad in real life. Let me tell you, they were everything but bad.
The same play is performed three times in each act, but each time slightly different, more energetic, more messy, more noise, less sight and more blood and faints.
The feeling of not being sure where to look during a performance with the fear of missing out with so much going on is baffling.
Quite different from your usual theatre, and I am not referring to the so loved and hated sardines, Noises Off, shows different stages to one single performance that gets ridiculously funnier and worse as the acts go by.
It is a reminder to pay your taxes, not lose contact lenses, don’t chase more women than you can handle and definitely buy your own flowers or you might end up with a cactus plant stuck between your bum checks.
Liza Goddard stars as Dotty Otley, Paul Bradley as Selsdon Mowbray and Simon Shepherd as Lloyd Dallas.
They are joined by Simon Coates as Frederick Fellowes, Lucy Robinson as Belinda Blair, Daniel Rainford as Tim Allgood, Dan Fredenburgh as Garry Lejeune, Lisa Ambalavanar as Brooke Ashton and Nikhita Lesler as Poppy Norton-Taylor.
Noises Off is the perfect representation of when you want to pour a drizzle of oil into a hot pan but you drop it and splash it everywhere. Chaotic, energetic and hilariously flamey.
If I had to describe this theatre in one word it would most certainly be chaotic, from start to finish it was all a silly mess and I absolutely loved it all and can’t recommend it enough. – MT
