When It All Goes So Wonderfully Wrong: Noises Off at Gulfshore

By Nancy Stetson

You feel perturbed when things go wrong in real life, but it’s such delicious fun when it happens onstage.

And Michael Frayn’s Noises Off at Gulfshore Playhouse’s Moran Mainstage in Naples, is filled with mishap after mishap: missed cues, forgotten and disappearing props, dropped lines, ad libs, costume failures and characters unexpectedly entering at the wrong time.

This play stars a fictional ragtag British group of former TV actors touring in a third-rate farce called “Nothing On.” Dotty, playing the house keeper, Mrs. Clackett (a wonderfully. balmy Michele Ragusa) wants nothing more than to sit down with a plate of sardines and watch a royal event on the television.

But, thinking they’ll be alone, a randy couple show up to have a fling in an upstairs bedroom. The man, an estate agent, tells the housekeeper he’s showing the house, which is for rent, but they just want a couple hours alone.

Then the house’s owners show up unexpectedly when they’re supposed to be in Mallorca. They’ve arrived secretly, because they don’t want the tax man to know they’ve returned to England.

The play-within-a-play contains intentionally bad dialogue, stale jokes and slamming doors. There are eight doors in this two-level set (by Lee Savage) as well as a window that also serves as an entrance for a burglar.

We first meet the actors as they’re painfully stumbling through their dress rehearsal on the eve of opening night.

Their director, Lloyd (Edward Staudenmayer), alternately berates and coaxes, and as tempers fray, people call each other “my pet,” “my precious” and “love,” though often through gritted teeth.

Regusa, is sublime as the aptly named Dotty, who can’t remember what to do with a plate of sardines – bring them onstage with her, take them offstage, or leave them on the sidetable.

Selsdon (Tom Aulino), playing the burglar, has a drinking problem and is forever wandering off and missing his entrance cues.

Garry (Dan Fenaughty) and Brooke (Tess Frazer), as the couple who show up unannounced for an afternoon assignation, are perfectly matched. They don’t seem to have two brain cells between them.

Fenaughty’s Garry cannot form a complete sentence or thought unless it’s already scripted. And he’s paired with the equally clueless Brooke, whose character is dressed all in pink from her lipstick to her patent-leather high heels, just like a Barbie doll. (Costumes by Tracy Dorman.) She’s so pink, she looks as if a case of Pepto Bismol exploded all over her.

Her losing-her-contact-lens schtick hasn’t aged well (Noises Off is over 40 years old), but Frazer makes the most of her dim-witted role. Her Brooke gamely smiles and soldiers on, saying her lines by rote, refusing to improvise even when circumstances demand it.

Then the homeowners, Frederick (Jordan Sobel) and Belinda (Larissa Klinger) show up unexpectedly, trying to hide from everyone, especially the taxman. As Belinda, Klinger is the mother-figure and peacemaker, while also the cast’s gossipmonger; she knows all. Sobel, as Phillip, is earnest and demands to know his motivation before he can do a scene.

Set builder/handyman Tim (Brian Owen) and stage manager Poppy (Angie Janas) round out this tightly knit troupe.

While it may sound complicated – we’re watching actors who are playing actors who are playing actors – it’s easy to follow.

In the first act, we see the ensemble rehearsing the play; we get to know the individual personalities and quirks as well as the roles they’re playing. Be patient, this is the set-up.

In the second act, we see the actors on the road, performing the farce. Only this time, we’re backstage. There may be a comedy being performed onstage, but backstage it’s a drama bordering on melodrama. There are tiffs and fights and arguments and misunderstandings. Some are having affairs or breaking up. The actors gleefully sabotage each other. Act II is a wonderfully choreographed dance of comedy, a highly kinetic live-action Rube Goldberg machine of mishap. And once “Nothing On” begins, they all have to fight and argue in silence.

In the final act, the set’s turned back around, and we’re watching a performance later in the tour. By now, everything has gone to pieces, and the actors find themselves in disastrous situations, having to think on their feet and improvise as everything goes horribly wrong onstage. It’s delightful, giddy fun when the wheels come off the bus.

Noises Off is simultaneously a love letter to theater and an expose: the personal and professional rivalries, the showmances, the vanities, the actors coasting on past successes.

And while this is an ensemble piece, it is Ragusa as Dotty, the sardine-challenged housekeeper, who steals the show with her batty absent-mindedness and tart, unexpected asides.

Director Peter Amster’s comedic fingerprints are all over this farce. In earlier seasons, Amster, a soulmate of humor, previously directed The 39 Steps and the surprisingly fresh production of Barefoot in the Park at Gulfshore Playhouse. He’s in his element here, making the most of every visual and verbal joke. He and his entire loopy cast know how to tickle an audience’s funny bone. A comedy could not be in better hands.

Times are difficult; if you’re in need of a good laugh, go see Noises Off at Gulfshore Playhouse. Its ridiculous humor is a welcome temporary distraction and healing balm.

Noises Off plays on Gulfshore Playhouse’s Moran Mainstage at the Baker Theatre and Education Center (100 Goodlette-Frank Road, Naples) through March 20. Tickets are $144, $99, $59 and $39. For more information, call 239-261-7520 or go to www.gulfshoreplayhouse.org.