|
PROVINCETOWN GUIDE
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| DIRECTORY |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Provincetown :: Friday, February 10th 2012
|
|
|
|
Hats Off to Noises Off
At the Julie Harris Stage
By Daniel McDermott of Provincetown Magazine
July 16th, 2009
The idea is this: good actors acting like bad actors, with the help of a revolving, two-tiered set, many slamming doors, one stubborn contact lens, and a plate of sardines. Theatrically speaking, the term “noises off” defines sounds that are meant to dwell offstage: clanking, hammering, bickering, directing, and the shuffling of costume change.
| Hats off to Academy Award-nominated and Obie Award-winning director John Hancock for his Wellfleet production of Noises Off. |
|
But the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT) adaptation of Michael Frayn’s classic English farce depicts all the high-energy slapstick we’ve come to expect from Monty Pythons Flying Circus and offers a behind the scenes vantage of an acting troupe that is as
lacking in talent as they are brimming with dysfunction. The show runs through August 1st at the WHAT Julie Harris Stage in Wellfleet.
Act one takes us through the final dress rehearsal, when the actors bumble their lines, forget their lines, miss cues, and re-miss cues, while fawning over the orders of their forehead-slapping director, Lloyd (Bob Kropf) – who squawks his disapproval from within the audience – a few perilous hours before the opening night of their production Nothing On.
In Act two, the set is flipped 180 degrees, offering a backstage view of a flubbed performance that is exacerbated by many overlapping degrees of personal drama. Act three rotates the set once again and shows that same disastrously infected performance from the audience’s perspective.
The elaborate set design and intricate choreography of Noises Off alone are well worth the price of admission. Generally speaking, the actors are equally gifted, given the variant clemency that live theater demands, and they all deliver their fair share of dialogue. Each character is relevant, and each actor delivers impeccable timing, which makes for a rather fast-paced, head-turning experience, enjoyably so.
The romantic chemistry, however, is severely lacking, especially within the love triangle of Brooke (played by actress Winslow Corbett, who, poor thing, spends most of the performance searching for a lost contact lens in thigh-high stockings and Stiletto heels) – a young, promiscuous actor from London who proves resilient to both direction and improvisation, Lloyd – the God-like director, and Poppy (Danielle Tolley) – the very emotional and over-sensitive assistant stage manager.
Lloyd is sleeping with both women, but Poppy is carrying his baby; the two have a flinching, pecking, onstage kiss that reminds me of the childhood kisses I was ordered to bestow my powder-scented grandmother. And throughout Act one, the changing of voice is a bit lost, due mostly to the American actor’s struggle with sarcastic English brogue. It’s difficult at times to discern the actors playing actors from the actors playing actors who are playing actors, which is confusing enough.
It is Act two, the backstage vantage in all its hilarious and chaotic glory, which highlights the group’s collective strength: comedy, of which Noises Off is certainly not lacking. The performance is highlighted by Lloyd’s whisky-downing anguish, Brooke’s cluelessness, Frederick’s (Tom Patrick Stephens) incessant nosebleeds, and Gary’s (Adam Harrington) stuttering anxiety.
Hats off to Academy Award-nominated and Obie Award-winning director John Hancock for his Wellfleet production of Noises Off, a well performed and laughter-filled piece of theater, and a great night out.
Noises Off is performed Tuesday - Saturday, 8 p.m. at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater’s Julie Harris Stage, 2357 Route 6, Wellfleet, through August 1st. Tickets are $32 (orchestra), $25 (balcony). For information and reservations, call 508.349.9428 or visit www.what.org.
Also visit ProvincetownMagazine.net for more articles and information.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Arts & Theater
Join Us on 
Classes
