Noises Off at CPT

I had so much fun at CPT's hilarious production of Noises Off last night. I don't think I stopped laughing during the whole show! Lloyd Dallas (Brandon Garside), a temperamental and sarcastic director, is staging a play called Nothing's On starring Dotty Otley (Carol Madsen), an aging television star, as Mrs. Clackett, Gary Lejeune (Michael Reis), a scatterbrained actor who can't finish a sentence, as Roger Tramplemain, Brooke Ashton (Amelia Joan Bowles), a young and inexperienced actress having an affair with Lloyd, as Vicki, Frederick Fellows (Josh Curtis), an insecure and accident prone actor, as Philip Brent and the Sheikh, Belinda Blair (Samantha Wursten), a reliable actress who knows all of the gossip about the cast, as Flavia Brent, and Selsdon Mowbray (Doug Caldwell), an accomplished actor who has a drinking problem and a tendency to miss his cues, as the Burglar. Poppy Norton-Taylor (Jenni Cooper) is the put-upon assistant stage manager who is also involved with Lloyd and Tim Algood (Radley Haws) is the overworked and sleep deprived stage manager tasked with fixing every problem. Act I of this play-within-a-play involves a disastrous dress rehearsal before opening night with missing props, a malfunctioning set, an actor questioning his character's motivation, a spontaneous nosebleed, and a lost contact lens.  Act II takes place backstage while the show is on tour. The relationship between Dotty and Gary has deteriorated and the two of them do everything they can to sabotage each other's performance while Lloyd is trying, unsuccessfully, to keep both Brooke and Poppy happy by having Tim make several ill-fated attempts to buy them flowers. Act III takes place at the end of the run and features a complete breakdown with the actors ad-libbing the entire scene while Brooke performs her lines and blocking as normal. The entire cast has brilliant comedic timing because the pace is incredibly frenetic (if you blink at all you will miss something funny). The physical performances are outstanding and I don't know which is funnier: when Frederick hops up the stairs because his trousers are down around his ankles or when Gary trips down them so spectacularly! I love that the bows incorporate all of the hijinks from the show, especially when Bowles looks for a contact lens on the floor, when Reis gingerly walks down the stairs, and when Caldwell misses his cue to come through the window. The elaborate two-story set is almost a character itself, particularly when it fails so dramatically, and the sheer number of doors (which are slammed continually) is impressive. I enjoyed everything about this show and I highly recommend it for a fun night out. It runs on the Barlow Main Stage through February 25 (go here for tickets).