The Division of Theater is ending its season of mainstage productions with the British farce “Noises Off,” which is about a theater company putting on a new play.
For most of the second act of Noises Off, no lines are spoken. Instead, props fly across the stage. Actors gesture at one another and race back and forth. Antics are had. Doors are slammed. Sardines are spilled.
“It’s a comical ballet,” said Ryan Holihan, the third-year graduate director who is doing Noises Off as his thesis production.
It’s just some of the chaos that exists on stage of the Division of Theater’s last mainstage production of the academic year. Noises Off is a farce by British playwright Michael Frayn about a semi-professional theater company putting on a new play called Nothing On. The first act follows a rehearsal. The second act focuses on the backstage activity during a performance, and the third act is an actual performance of Nothing On.
Noises Off will be performed in the Elizabeth Evans Baker Theater in Kantner Hall for two weeks, Wednesday through Saturday. The show runs for a little more than two hours and has two intermissions.
The play looks at several stereotypical theater archetypes: the diva, the actor who needs to know what his “motivation” is, the overworked stage manager, the overbearing director and more. The way the play highlights the world of theater, Holihan said, is the reason he wanted to do the show.
“It satisfied my need and desire to do something really challenging,” he said. “Even though it’s a farce, I think it really says something about theater and how challenging theater is in and of itself.”
Though Noises Off is about a play within a play, Holihan stressed those not involved with theater will still understand the humor because it’s “straightforward” and is largely based in physical humor.
For instance, Thomas Daniels, a third-year graduate studying acting, spends part of the second act with his shoes tied together, forcing him to hop around stage.
“It’s probably only 10 minutes or so, but it involves so much movement… that I’m just destroyed by the end of it,” Daniels said, who plays Garry in Noises Off and Roger in Nothing On. “I haven’t counted, but I’m willing to bet that myself and Kat (Bramley, who plays Brooke in Noises Off and Vicki in Nothing On) run up and down either the onstage stairs or the backstage stairs at least 25 times.”
The set is two stories and has two sides to represent the onstage of the Nothing On play and its backstage, where the second act takes place. Built upon a platform on the Baker stage, the set rotates during each intermission to change the setting.
With the script’s clear dictation of the set, Holihan said the set was like the “tenth character of the play.”
“British farces are primarily based around miscommunication, so there’s the cliché about doors,” Lisa Bol, a third-year graduate studying acting, said of the seven doors on the set. “People run in and out of rooms … or you find someone you didn’t expect.”
Holihan said Noises Off is “one of the few true ensemble shows,” and Bol couldn’t be happier about the ensemble she is working with.
“I’m working with half of my studio,” Bol, who plays Dotty Otley in Noises Off and Mrs. Clackett in Nothing On, said. “There’s a total of five MFA (actors) in the show, which is so awesome because we’re about to graduate. … It’s sort of a perfect way to end my time here.”
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