Sunday, 21 January 2007 12:26 pm
Funny, it wasn't that quiet to me
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deckardcanineLast Friday, Arena Stage volunteers had an unusual time with Noises Off, a farce about a farce. Greeters were instructed to say, in British accents, "Welcome to Nothing On!" If the customers got confused and said they had come for Noises Off, the greeters were to say, "Come on in anyway; we have Nothing On tonight; I'm sure you'll enjoy it." (Said the stage manager at this point, "Get used to it.") Ushers were told only to pass out the programs showing the side for Nothing On, which gave comical bios for the fake actors among other things. From what I saw, people were reading that before flipping it over for the genuine program stuff. I decided to attempt a British accent -- Liverpudlian, to be precise -- to get in the spirit.
What wasn't so good for the ushers was the lack of seating due to show popularity. We couldn't sit in the aisles during the first act, either, because the "director" would come down them. I could, er, stand to stand the whole time, but from where I was before the intermission, you had to kneel to see the upstairs action.
The first act of Noises Off consists of a dress rehearsal of Nothing On, which appears to be pretty good in its own right, albeit old-fashioned. Noises Off, however, cannot be very old, judging from the occasional F-word and suggestive positions. In this rehearsal, we see the extreme mental, moral, emotional, and other flaws of the six main actors, the understudy, the director, and his assistant. There is little hope for a good performance.
The second act shows the backstage of the first(?) night's performance during Act 1. Now more of the humor is nonverbal. At first things apparently go swimmingly on stage in spite of the antics behind the scenes, but then it becomes at least as bad as the rehearsal, tho still good enough for applause. I heard some audience members say they didn't have high expectations for laughs after the intermission, but by this time they knew better.
The third act makes us the audience proper as they put on Act 1 for a later night (we never do find out what's supposed to happen in Nothing On after that). Now the actors' minds and hearts are so far elsewhere that it quickly becomes a game of "What's Right with This Picture?". If we hadn't seen the rehearsal, we would be hopelessly lost.
My mom had said she was up for a "check-your-brain-at-the-door" play after a hard week. I consider that description misleading, because while it doesn't require much intellect (notwithstanding a reference to Myra Hess), you have to be alert if you don't want to think, "Wait, when did that happen?"
That said, it has to be the funniest Arena production -- heck, the funniest stage production -- I've seen since their rendition of Animal Crackers in 1999. Think of the most systematically chaotic comedy you've seen, and cube it. At the risk(?) of sounding like Millicent Mudd, it's so far over the top that you can see it peeking out the bottom. The British accents didn't hurt, either. :)
What wasn't so good for the ushers was the lack of seating due to show popularity. We couldn't sit in the aisles during the first act, either, because the "director" would come down them. I could, er, stand to stand the whole time, but from where I was before the intermission, you had to kneel to see the upstairs action.
The first act of Noises Off consists of a dress rehearsal of Nothing On, which appears to be pretty good in its own right, albeit old-fashioned. Noises Off, however, cannot be very old, judging from the occasional F-word and suggestive positions. In this rehearsal, we see the extreme mental, moral, emotional, and other flaws of the six main actors, the understudy, the director, and his assistant. There is little hope for a good performance.
The second act shows the backstage of the first(?) night's performance during Act 1. Now more of the humor is nonverbal. At first things apparently go swimmingly on stage in spite of the antics behind the scenes, but then it becomes at least as bad as the rehearsal, tho still good enough for applause. I heard some audience members say they didn't have high expectations for laughs after the intermission, but by this time they knew better.
The third act makes us the audience proper as they put on Act 1 for a later night (we never do find out what's supposed to happen in Nothing On after that). Now the actors' minds and hearts are so far elsewhere that it quickly becomes a game of "What's Right with This Picture?". If we hadn't seen the rehearsal, we would be hopelessly lost.
My mom had said she was up for a "check-your-brain-at-the-door" play after a hard week. I consider that description misleading, because while it doesn't require much intellect (notwithstanding a reference to Myra Hess), you have to be alert if you don't want to think, "Wait, when did that happen?"
That said, it has to be the funniest Arena production -- heck, the funniest stage production -- I've seen since their rendition of Animal Crackers in 1999. Think of the most systematically chaotic comedy you've seen, and cube it. At the risk(?) of sounding like Millicent Mudd, it's so far over the top that you can see it peeking out the bottom. The British accents didn't hurt, either. :)
