THEATER REVIEW / ‘NOISES OFF’ : Funny, Fast-Paced Farce Showcases Action on Both Sides of the Playhouse Curtain

If it’s true that people like to share their misery, Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off” is a play that should appeal to anybody who’s ever been in any sort of theatrical production.

In two hours or so, the playwright catalogues practically anything that can go wrong behind the curtain, from misplaced props to backfiring romances. Only this time, it isn’t a typical production of (name of local community theater company here withheld due to uncommon generosity on the part of the above-bylined), but a fast and funny farce produced by the Ventura College Theater Department.

You’ve seen nothing like it.

At opening curtain, a very bad theater company is rehearsing a generic farce called “Nothing On,” and we watch as the performers, director and stage managers interact.

Act Two takes place backstage a month later, mostly while the scene we’ve just seen rehearsed is being performed out of our sight, and Act Three takes place during a public performance of “Nothing On,” two months later.

As time passes, the personal relationships among the actors develop--and in some cases fall apart--and the performances in “Nothing On” actually get progressively worse.

It all sounds pretty confusing, but is easily understood in process.

The performers in “Noises Off” are Jeff Britt as thickheaded, florid Garry Lejeune, who proves to be the world’s worst ad-libber; Susan Compton as ditzy blonde Brooke Ashton; Joe Smith and Jazz Walea as the somewhat more strait-laced Frederick Fellowes and Belinda Blair; the remarkable Glynys Cochrane as Dotty Otley, who specializes in playing ancient housekeepers; and John Medeiros as perpetually drunken Selsdon Mowbray.

Trying to keep these actors on track are megalomaniac director Lloyd Dallas (Marcus Hanson), hapless stage manager Tim Allgood (PJ Galligan), and even more hapless assistant stage manager Poppy Norton-Taylor (Mia Fiore).

Between the action of “Nothing On”--with characters rushing up and down stairs, through various doors and windows--and the “backstage” action, there’s barely a dull moment, and the pacing increases as the play continues.

The cast is uniformly fine, missing not a beat on opening night’s performance--and, as you know, with farce, timing is everything. With one farce contained within another, the potential problems mount geometrically.

Once again, Ventura College’s Willy Eck has come up with an impressive stage set, even more so considering the entire thing must be revolved 180 degrees between Acts One and Two, and again between Acts Two and Three.

One small problem with Frayn’s otherwise precisely crafted script: It doesn’t end so much as stop cold in mid-step. On the other hand, director Judy Garey has not tacked on an artificial ending, as Peter Bogdanovich did for his semi-satisfactory 1992 film version.

* WHERE AND WHEN

“Noises Off” continues weekends through May 16 at the Ventura College Theater, Loma Vista Road in Ventura. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and at 3 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $10, $7 for students, staff and seniors and are available through the college’s Community Services Office (654-6459) or at the door before each performance.