Comedy ‘Noises Off’ begins rehearsal for May 13, 14, 20, 22 and 22 shows

The next production of the Rogers City Drama Club has been cast. The comedy “Noises Off” by Michael Frayn will take to the stage at the Rogers City Theater May 13, 14, 20, 21, and 22. Under the direction of Bryan Mills, production features an elaborate set which spins around revealing the backstage antics of the cast. “Noises Off” recounts the misadventures of a third-rate British theater troupe as they tour a show titled “Nothing On” through the hinterlands.

In theater parlance, “noises off” refers to offstage sound effects. In this case, the noises off are the backstage yelps and battle cries of the actors who are entangled in a farce of their own. Playwright Frayn gives us three separate glimpses of the company and their cheesy comedy. In Act One, the cast and crew members stumble through a catastrophic final rehearsal with their director Lloyd (Robert McMaster), their stage manager Tim (Mike Idalski), and their assistant stage manager, Poppy (Kaitlen Robertson) of the first act of “Nothing On” as the clock passes midnight.

Hampered by wayward plates of sardines, broken doors, a lost contact lens and their general lack of talent, they lamely carry on for their caustic director. The silly plot seems to involve a daffy maid (Lauren Muszynski) in an English country house, where one couple, Roger and Vicki Kevin Ciarkowski and Jessica Szatkowski) plan an escape getaway. Another couple, Philip and Flavia (Travis Langlois and Michele Ciupka) hide from the tax collector, while a drunken burglar (Morgan Suszek) and an Arab sheik complicate the action. Of course, the requisite slamming doors and dropping trousers are in abundance. At intervals in the botched rehearsal, the audience gets a glimpse of the actors’ own quirky personalities and company romances. Act Two of “Noises Off” takes the madness one step further. The audience once again watches Act One of “Nothing On,” but from backstage. The entire set revolves 180 degrees, exposing prop tables and technical equipment.

A month has passed on tour and tempers are flaring. Smitten lovers would now like to kill each other, but “t

he show must go on.” The actors try to keep up appearances onstage for the matinee audience but backstage it’s a pantomime of choreographed chaos in the fine tradition of the Marx Brothers. A fire axe, a cactus plant, sardines, bottles, and malicious practical jokes bring the company, literally, to their knees. Act Three is almost two months later, and we see Act One of “Nothing One” from the front again. By now the actors are in open warfare and the stage is their battlefield where they rewrite dialogue, sabotage fellow actors and destroy props. As the pandemonium increases, so do the laughs.

Movie audiences may remember Peter Bogdanovich’s film version of “Noises Off” which starred Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, John Ritter and Christopher Reeve and Americanized the locations and most of the characters.