Laughter is coming to the Massey Theatre!
From February 15 to 27, the Massey Theatre brings the Arts Club Theatre Company’s hit production of Noises Off to its stage. The fan favourite farce by Michael Frayn is a dizzying play-within-a-play classic sure to be a good time for all, even behind a mask. Written in 1982, and opening in London’s West End on February 23rd of that year, Frayn’s play is still tickling funny bones as it hits its 40th anniversary.
This Arts Club production was produced pre-pandemic and was praised by critics and audiences alike when it played at the Stanley Theatre. The slap-stick classic, takes the audience on a hilarious behind-the-scenes peek at an inept acting troupe rehearsing and performing the farce Nothing On. Despite nerves, dropped lines and technical difficulties, the troubled troupe make it through rehearsal and open the show.
The play unfolds in three acts fondly looking at the follies of theatre folk, whose susceptibility to out-of-control egos, memory loss, and passionate affairs turn every performance into a high-risk adventure. The egos, insecurities and tempers flaring backstage and forgotten lines, doors slamming, missed cues all figure in the plot of this hilarious and classically comic play. As time goes by, things deteriorate until pandemonium ensues and axe-wielding co-stars, drunken cast members and misplaced sardines take center stage during a disaster of a performance that threatens to jinx the old saying, “The show must go on.”
Director Scott Bellis manages to time the madness brilliantly along with a stellar cast who rises to the plays’ physical comedy and verbal demands that requires mathematically precise timing.
Having seen the original Arts Club production of Noises Off, if laughter really is the best medicine, then I’m sure you will feel revived as you leave the theatre laughing.
The Arts Club Theatre Company’s production of Noises Off plays the Massey Theatre, 735-8th Avenue New Westminster, from February 15-27, 2022. Tickets are on sale now at masseytheatre.com.