By Russ Tarby
Contributing Writer
The Baldwinsville Theatre Guild presents two-and-a-half hours of high-spirited hijinks — both on- and off-stage — with “Noises Off,” the award-winning farce of farces by veteran British funnyman Michael Frayn.
To understand what Frayn is doing with this three-act play-within-a-play, you need to know his inspiration. Back in 1970, Frayn wrote a farce for actress Lynn Redgrave called “The Two of Us,” and after watching it from the wings one night, he observed, “It was funnier from behind than in front, and I thought that one day I must write a farce from behind.”
The result is “Noises Off,” which takes its title from the theatrical stage direction indicating sounds coming from offstage. Considered one of the funniest farces ever written, “Noises Off” focuses on a cast of itinerant actors rehearsing a flop called “Nothing On.”
Directed by CNY Playhouse regular Dan Rowlands, BTG’s current show is like a co-production with the DeWitt playhouse. Several of the actors have done notable work at CNY Playhouse as has Rowlands, assistant director Kasey Polly and props mistress Crystal Rowlands.
In any case, Rowlands has gathered a more-than-capable cast to indulge in endless door-slamming, crazy Cockney inflections, back-breaking slapstick and assorted offstage intrigue.
An aptly sarcastic Jack Sherman plays Lloyd Dallas, director of “Nothing On,” who’s bedding both his ingénue and his assistant stage manager.
Heather Jensen displays a real flair for comedy as Dotty Otley, a middle-aged television star who is not only the top-billed star but also one of the play’s principal investors who’s dating the much younger but green-eyed Garry Lejeune, the play’s leading man, portrayed by a mustachioed Matthew Gordon, whose Act 3 pratfall down the stairs is a sure show-stopper.
Alyssa Otoski plays the cell-phone obsessed Brooke Ashton, a young actress who pays no attention to others, either in performance or backstage and persists in her role as scripted regardless of all interruptions. She repeatedly loses her contact lenses, without which she is blind. Casey Callaghan portrays dim-witted Freddie Fellowes, an actor afraid of violence and blood, both of which give him nosebleeds. Katie Deferio appears as Belinda Blair, a cheerful, reliable actress and the company’s de facto peacemaker.
Justin Polly steals every scene in which he appears as the alcoholic, half-deaf elderly actor, Selsdon Mowbray, who spends most of Acts 2 and 3 filching a bottle of Jameson’s.
Kristina Rusho plays a world-weary and over-sensitive Poppy, assistant stage manager and understudy to the female roles, and BTG veteran Josh Taylor portrays Tim Allgood, the over-worked and easily flustered stage manager, who must understudy, repair the set and run errands for the love-struck director.
Much of the comedy derives from subtle variations in each version of “Nothing On” as character flaws play off each other off-stage to undermine on-stage performance, with a surfeit of slapstick.
While the ensemble works well together, the real star of this play is the set designed by Josh Taylor. In Acts 1 and 3, it shows the two-tiered “Nothing On” set with seven doors and a long stairway. In Act 2, we see the action unfold from backstage.
“Noises Off,” produced by Korrie Taylor, continues at the First Presbyterian Education Center, 64 Oswego St., at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 29 and 30, at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1, and at 8 p.m. Oct. 6 and 7. Tickets cost $22, and $18 for students and seniors; popcorn and coffee included; baldwinsvilletheatreguild.org; 877-8465.
