“Noises Off”

Highly Recommended ***** Some 50 years ago, I had the good fortune of working in a summer stock theater located in Marengo ,Illinois. Shady Lane Farm Playhouse was its name and this is where I met Chicago favorite Dale Benson. This summer theater did some of the hokiest of plays, or as I call them farces, “Up In Mabel’s Room”, Getting Gerties Garter” and Critic’s Choice” to name a few were the inane titles. These were plays where doors slammed, pratt falls prevailed and audiences were able to leave their troubles on the doorsteps and laugh, laugh ,laugh!  To do a farce well, it takes a great cast of players and a director who truly understands what the playwright is trying to accomplish, which again, is to make the audience “forget their troubles” and have a blast!

Windy City Playhouse, one of our newer “storefront” theaters , doing a great mix of productions each season has chosen to bring us one of the funniest of farces, dealing with the play-within-a-play concept, “Noises Off”, Michael Frayn’s hysterical look at a theatrical company doing a play,  “Nothing On” and looking at this company from three perspectives. The play is done in three acts. The first act is looking at this theatrical company at dress rehearsal with the director having all types of problems with his cast of players. We are meeting each actor and the stage manager while learning a bit about their relationships, to the play and to each other.

Act Two is from the backstage view of the same company at another performance. Under normal circumstances, during the intermission, the set is turned around so when the audience comes back, they view the backside of the stage. Windy City Director Scott Weinstein opted to do this in a different manner and set designer Jeffrey D. Kmiec did a splendid job in making this concept work. We, the audience leave our comfy seats in the theater and head to the “backstage” seating area where chairs, stools and other means of sitting for the second act take place. I found this to be a clever way to bring the audience closer to the action and anyone who has ever been in a play knows that all types of things do take place “backstage”. This act is even funnier ( if that is possible) than the first.

We will return to our original seats for the third act after a 10 minute intermission, where we will watch the third ( a much shorter one) act where once again, they present, or try to present, “Nothing On” the farce within the farce! By this time, the company is at odds with the other cast members, the director and the stage manager, but hysterically so! They say that “Laughter is good for the soul”, and after the two and a half hours of watching “Noises Off” your soul will feel pretty darn good. In fact, GREAT!

To pull off a show like this it takes a shrewd and clever director. Weinstein, over the years has proved to be just that, and his cast of players are dynamic, energetic and quite flexible. There are a number of places where one can injure themselves easily. Hopping about a stage and stairs is not easy to do under normal conditions, but doing so with your shoelaces tied or your pants dropped to the ankles  could be an Olympic feat! This cast is amazing and appears to be having as much fun as the audience.

Amy J. Carle is the Dotty ( the housekeeper in the play-within-a-play) and is as strong as I have ever seen in this role. The director of “Nothing On” Lloyd is played to perfection by Mike Tepeli. This rouge is having affairs with several women in the cast and during the three acts we learn who is who and what is happening. The stage manager, Poppy ( adorably played by Erica Bittner) and the “understudy” , Tim ( well- played by Alexander Quinones) are keys to the sub plots as well. The other  cast members are in couples with the exception of the old actor, Selsdon ( an incredible performance by Will Casey) who has bottles of booze hidden everywhere in every theater played. Garry is the highly energetic and very athletic Ryan McBride and shows up to woo the adorable and very sexy Brooke ( Rochelle Therrien is a hoot) who is by the way “sleeping with someone to get this role”. The other couple, Frederick and Belinda are played by Amy Rubenstein and Scott Duff. These two also show great ability in their athletic abilities. If you enjoy  having a great evening out and a laugh fest, this is one to put on your calendar.

The technical side of the show is sheer perfection. It has to be to work. Hats off to Max Fabian for the fight choreography, Casey Wood (costume co-ordinate and Jessica Kuehnau for her design), Andrew Hatcher ( props that are amazingly assembled), Mike Durst ( lighting) and Brandon Reed (sound ). They took this massive show to a new level in making it truly work in a storefront, black box, theater. Bravo! This would have worked at Shady Lane!

Noises Off will continue thru March 31st at Windy City Playhouse located at 3014 West Irving Park Rd with performances as follows:

Price: $45 – $85

Show Type: Comedy

Box Office: 773-891-8985

windycityplayhouse.com/noises-off/

Total run time is 2 hours and thirty minutes with two intermissions. They do sell drinks and snacks.

Parking is street and the meters do work evenings.

To see what others are saying, visit http://www,theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Noises Off”.