NOISES OFF, LAUGHS ON

English playwright Michael Frayn debuted his farce Noises Off in 1982, and decades of audiences and reviewers have since happily applauded Frayn’s work as perhaps the funniest as well as the most challenging comedy in the canon of English-language theater. The Old Globe has accepted the Noises Off challenge this summer, and the result is a joy!

Linda Mugleston as Dotty Otley

The cast of Noises Off

For the uninitiated, Noises Off is a farce within a farce, chronicling the misadventures of a hapless theater troupe rehearsing, and then performing, the first act of a hack bedroom comedy titled Nothing On, the negligible plot of which centers on sardines, sheets and slamming doors. Act I shows us a chaotic final dress rehearsal the night before the company is scheduled to open, embarking on a 10-week tour of the English provinces; Act II flips the set around to reveal the backstage melodrama four weeks later, when the production is falling apart; and Act III unveils a performance late in the tour that is so catastrophically bad that “Nothing On” could just as easily be called “Everything That Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong.”

(front) Michelle Veintimilla as Brooke Ashton, (back) Andrew Leeds as Garry Lejeune, Linda
Mugleston as Dotty Otley, Bryonha Marie as Belinda Blair, Jefferson Mays as Frederick Fellowes

Orville Mendoza as Selsdon Mowbray, Abby Leigh Huffstetler as Poppy Norton-Taylor,
Linda Mugleston as Dotty Otley, and Bryonha Marie as Belinda Blair

Throughout the play, lines are forgotten, cues are missed, blood is spilled, a plate of sardines assumes a pivotal role. In the confusion, actors repeatedly fall down the set’s staircase, and dizzying erotic moments are injected with hilarious frequency. Characters elude each other by inches, dashing from room to room. Tempers are frayed. and confusion and misunderstanding rule. The characters may be in an uproar, but spectators will have a memorable time.

Jefferson Mays as Frederick Fellowes

First among equals in this mayhem is Jefferson Mays, who plays Frederick Fellowes, in a soft-spoken comic role that includes hopping up a curved staircase with his pants around his ankles, which Mays performs three times each show. Linda Mugleston is affecting as Dotty, an aging actress who ensnarls herself with plates of those sardines to great comic effect. James Waterson is excellent as Lloyd Dallas, the cynical and frustrated director of the play. Michelle Veintimilla is a sexy Brooke Ashton who constantly misplaces her contact lenses.

Jefferson Mays, Linda Mugleston, Nehal Joshi as Garry Lejeune

Nehal Joshi, Abby Leigh Huffstetler as Poppy Norton-Taylor, James Waterston as Lloyd Dallas

The ensemble is completed with distinction by Orville Mendoza as the boozing actor Selsdon Mowbray, Nehal Joshi is the pompous Gary Lejuene, Matthew Patrick Davis is the production man of all trades, Tim Allgood, Abby Leigh Huffstetler is the inept stage manager, Poppy Norton-Taylor, and Bryona Marie is the sympathetic actress, Belinda Blair.

The Cast

Orville Mendoza as Selsdon Mowbray, Linda Mugleston as Dotty Otley, Bryonha Marie
as Belinda Blair, Michelle Veintimilla as Brooke Ashton, and Nehal Joshi as Garry Lejeune

A huge bow of appreciation goes to the designers who create the richly detailed interiors that enclose all the human uproar. Todd Rosenthal designed the fulsome set, with all its doors and windows and the flights of stairs. Izumi Inaba designed the costumes, Amanda Zieve designed the lighting, and Connor Wang designed the sound. A special huzzah goes to stunt coordinator Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum, who gets credit for orchestrating the fighting, flopping, tumbling, kicking, slipping, and other pratfalls that make the production so entertaining and so impressive.

The cast of Noises Off

Director Gordon Greenburg bestrides the production like a colossus. One can only speculate on how much rehearsal it required to make such a complex and finely tuned production come off with such precision. Whatever the time and effort this project required it was totally worth it. A Hall of Fame theater accomplishment!

Bryonha Marie as Belinda Blair

photos by Rich Soublet II
poster artwork by Ben Wiseman

Noises Off
Old Globe Theatre
Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage, 1363 Old Globe Way
2 hours and 15 minutes (three acts with one intermission)
ends on August 10, 2025
for tickets, ($54-$143), call 619.234-5623 or visit The Old Globe