The Playhouse of White Lake this summer brings its summer season to a close over the next two weekends with a production of the classic comedic farce, Noises Off.
A few definitions in preparation for this comedy:
Noises off: “sounds made offstage to be heard by the audience of a play.”(Oxford Languages)
Noises Off: “a 1982 farce by the English playwright Michael Frayn.” (Wikipedia)
Play-Within-a-Play: “a play that is being performed within the confines of another play” (Quora)
Noises Off is a play about the trials and tribulations of a troupe of actors on tour from town to town presenting a play-within-a-play called Nothing On. The result is a bawdy farce that represents the best of classic British humor. Think of the shows from Britain back in the 1970s and 1980s like The Benny Hill Show, or the comedy troupe, Monty Python, and you’ll get the gist of the humor in Noises Off.
Michael Frayn has said that the idea for Noises Off came to him when he was in the wings watching an earlier farce he had written. He found that vantage point – behind the scene - to be even funnier than the play actually being performed, and he decided to one day write “a farce from behind”.
The result was the critically acclaimed Noises Off.
“You see the development of the actors in the show going through their lives at different points,” said Joseph Quintana, the director of Noises Off. “Essentially the play-within-the-play is on a tour so we see these human actors at different stages of their life on the tour and it’s about relationships, and about friendships, and romance and jealousy.”
“It’s about looking out for each other,” said cast member Kimber King. “It’s about being a family with all of its ups and downs and problems and turmoil.”
“The end of the show portrays the last leg of the tour,” said Quintana. “At this point they’re just exhausted by the show, by life, by each other, but, man, do they fight through and get to the end of the show.”
Noises Off has a cast of nine characters who, as they struggle with day to day issues on tour, become a family, a chosen family. The audience will laugh when they see comedic similarities to their own families.
“Despite it being a heightened farce, the characters are representations of real people,” said Quintana. “It’s why it’s so funny, because the audience sees a piece of themselves in certain characters, and it just adds to the human-centered connection of the story we want to tell.”
One of those characters is Belinda Blair, played in the current production by King.
“Belinda is sort of my homage to middle-aged women,” said King. “I think middle-aged women get sort of stuck in the middle, try to fix everything, and are not always sane when they’re doing that. Belinda is trying to fix things until she can’t anymore!”
That Noises Off happens to be appearing this summer at the Playhouse at White Lake is a bit of serendipity. Both King and Quintana attended graduate school at the University of Central Florida.
“Myself and Joseph and our friends from Orlando were all talking one day, saying we really wanted to do a play together,” said King. “A play that brings joy to us, that we can have a wonderful experience performing together and laugh and bring joy to the audience.”
“I called Beth (Beth Beaman, Managing Director of the Playhouse at White Lake) and said we want to do Noises Off with you because this place - the Playhouse at White Lake - is a place of healing and joy and connection, and she (Beth) paused for a second and said that’s funny because we’re considering that for our season.”
“So, that’s how this whole thing happened,” said King. “We wanted to come here and work with the people we love, bringing people from all corners of the eastern United States, and then we have our beautiful local family of actors that are joining us. We’re all converging here and doing something that will allow us to feel that joy and family connection.”
Asked what message he hopes the audience takes away from Noises Off, Quintana said, “I think it is the resilience of the human spirit, the resilience of the power of what a chosen family can do for you. The cast was talking about how we are from all over but we somehow have a connection that is very much a chosen family, and we scream at each other, we laugh together, we do everything together, and at the end we stand strong despite what life can throw at us.”
“That resilience is reflected in the play,” said Quintana. “Your chosen family will get you through anything.”
Noises Off will be presented at the Playhouse at White Lake Aug. 15, 16, 22, and 23 at 7:30 p.m,, with matinee performances Aug. 16, 17, 23, and 24 (Saturday & Sunday) at 3 p.m.
