2019-20 september 10 - october 5, 2019 NOISES OFF by michael frayn BY MICHAEL FRAYN ABOUT THIS PLAY GUIDE CONTENTS Theatre Calgary’s Play Guides and Interactive Learning The BAsics Programs are made possible by the support of our sponsors: 3 Cast & Creative Team 5 Setting & Synopsis 7 Who’s Who connect with us Explorations /theatrecalgary 8 Door math, farception, and @theatrecalgary laughter induced headaches @theatrecalgary 9 A CONVERSATION WITH TC MENTEE CONRAD BELAU #tcNoisesOff 10 terms to know 12 FORGET HATCHET FACED CRITICS: farce is the quintessence of theatre 14 THEATRE 101 conversations 17 Noises off movie night 18 conversation starters 18 educational excersises 20 further reading 22 sources 220 9 Ave SE Calgary, AB T2G 5C4 theatrecalgary.com THE BASICS CAST & CREATIVE TEAM garry lejeune, timothy allgood brooke ashton, vicki dotty otley, roger tramplemain braden griffiths camille pavlenko mrs. clackett tyrell crews elizabeth belinda blair, frederick fellowes, stepkowski tarhan poppy norton-taylor flavia brent phillip brent anna cummer karen johnson-diamond graham percy lloyd dallas, selsdon mowbray, fight captain burglar christian goutsis duval lang director voice & dialect coach assistant stage manager tc mentors program - mark bellamy jane macfarlane ashley rees directing conrad belau set & lighting design fight director apprentice stage manager anton de groot karl h. sine chandler ontkean costume design stage manager deitra kalyn patti neice head of lighting head dresser stage hand catharine crumb rachel michelle sheridan trisha herbert head of sound assistant stage bronwyn bowlby carpenter andrew kerr head stage carpenter scott morris “noises off” is presented by special arrangement with samuel french, inc. noises off play guide 3 AM I IN SPAIN? NO I’M NOT IN SPAIN, I’M IN AGONY, THAT’S WHERE I AM!” THE BASICS SETTING The action takes place in the living-room of the Brents’ country home, on a Wednesday afternoon. ACT I - Grand Theatre, Weston-super-Mare. Monday, January 14. ACT II - Theatre Royal, Ashton-under-Lyne. Wednesday matinee, February 13 ACT III - Municipal Theatre, Stockton-on-Tees. Saturday, April 6. SYNOPSIS Act I begins during the final dress rehearsal at the Grand Theatre, Weston-Super-Mare for the regional tour of the new British farce Nothing On. The director, Lloyd Dallas, tries to keep his tired and frustrated cast together to pull off the rehearsal, as they forget their lines, blocking and props. To top it off, off-stage personal problems add to the mayhem as they struggle to finish running Act I. Act II takes place one month later with Nothing On up and running, and a performance at the Theatre Royal. The action now takes place backstage, as the cracks and flaws of the begin to surface. As the relationships start to deteriorate, we see backstage squabbles, late entrances, misplaced props and surprising revelations all come forth in a manic fashion. Act III takes place as Nothing On is about to wrap up its run at the Municipal Theatre. The frayed relationships we saw in Act II are now fully flushed out. Things go from bad to worse, with the blocking, lines and concentration of the cast completely out the window. Somehow, the cast manages to pull the show off, but it is a far cry from what it resembled in Act I. “noises off” has one 20-minute intermission between act i and act ii. noises off play guide 5 THE BASICS WHO’S WHO off stage/on stage dotty otley/mrs clackett lloyd dallas selsdon mowbray/burglar OFF STAGE A late-middle-aged OFF STAGE The director of the play, OFF STAGE An elderly alcoholic American actress. Forgetful. Dating Nothing On. Temperamental. Englishman who hides his bottles Garry, though she attempts to make One third of a Lloyd–Poppy–Brooke onstage. If he is not in sight while him jealous by meeting with Freddy. love triangle. rehearsing, the stage crew must find him before he passes out. Is hard of ON STAGE A Cockney Housekeeper garry lejeune/roger hearing when he wants to be. for the Brent’s home in England. OFF STAGE An American actor who Hospitable, though slow. never finishes a sentence. Always ON STAGE Old Cockney man in is completing sentences with, “you his seventies, breaking into the brooke ashton/vicki know...” Easily fired up, repeatedly Brent’s home. OFF STAGE A young inexperienced tries to attack Freddy after believing American actress. Pays no attention that Dotty was cheating on him timothy allgood to other performers, either in with Freddy. Speech affectations OFF STAGE An over-worked American performance or backstage. She disappear onstage but are ever- Assistant Stage Manager. seems as though she is not really present offstage. Dating Dotty. Understudies Selsdon and Freddy. present – like she is somewhere else inside her head. Is always losing her ON STAGE An English Real estate agent contact lenses. One-third of a Lloyd– who is attempting to rent Flavia’s Poppy–Brooke love triangle. and Phillip’s home, but uses it for his own personal benefit. ON STAGE An English woman who works for Inland Revenue and is frederick fellows/ trying to woo Roger. phillip brent/sheikh OFF STAGE An American actor with a belinda blair/flavia brent serious fear of violence and blood. OFF STAGE Cheerful and sensible, a Gets nosebleeds easily. Often reliable American actress. She may questions the meaning of his lines have feelings for Freddy. and moves. Blames himself often for things going wrong. ON STAGE Phillip Brent’s English wife. She is dependable, though not one ON STAGE (PHILLIP) An Englishman who for household duties. lives out of the country with his wife Flavia to avoid paying taxes. He poppy norton-taylor enters the country knowing that if OFF STAGE American Stage Manager. he is caught by Inland Revenue, he Emotional and over-sensitive, will lose most of the year’s income. and envious of Brooke, whom she understudies. Carrying Lloyd’s child. ON STAGE (SHEIKH) A Middle-Eastern, One-third of a Lloyd-Poppy-Brooke Interested in renting Flavia’s and love triangle. Phillip’s home and is the spitting image of Phillip. noises off play guide 7 explorations DOOR MATH, FARCEPTION, AND LAUGHTER INDUCED HEADACHES director mark bellamy and set worked on, specifically because of the ever used before. With this show you and lighting designer amount of doors on the set…which is 10. have to be very particular about the anton degroot talk bringing And come Act II all doors are in use. staging, it’s just like a choreographed noises off to life dance on the stage.” “I had to take a different approach than I ark Bellamy, Director, and Anton usually would with this set. My process With the hard work of the cast and de Groot, Set and Lighting generally starts from the abstract to creative teams, Anton and Mark MDesigner, had their work cut out for the concrete. For Noises Off, it was the are excited to hear and see the joy them when tasked with bringing one of opposite. Everything has to be set up in audiences experience. the best farces ever written to Theatre a certain way. If we take liberties with Calgary. A farce in itself is complex. But the physical structure or bones of the Mark started going home with when you think about Noises Off, it’s a set, then we could very easily impede headaches during rehearsals from too farce within a farce. Or ‘Farception,’ as the staging.” much laughter, which is the best kind of Mark coined it. problem to have, so he wants to share But wait, isn’t this a play about a that with the audience. “In a typical farce, there’s one character play where everything is supposed to who’s the centre of a cyclone, standing go wrong? Have we lost you yet? It “There’s so many experiences you get in the eye of the storm, and the rest goes back to what Mark was saying in theatre, but this is about laughter. of the world revolves around them,” about organized chaos. Anton has Releasing everything in your life to said Mark. “In Noises Off, it’s about incorporated the doors on set to make watch what’s going on stage with these actors in a play, where everything that chaos work on the stage. people getting into horrible situations goes wrong. It’s a farce about a farce. and how hilarious it can be.” It’s organized chaos.” “The doors need to be where they need to be because it’s baked into the Both Mark and Anton reflect that getting Mark, considered one of Calgary’s dramaturgy of the piece.” here was collaboration in its purest masters of comedy, took a great deal form. They had a wonderful playwright of time and thought to prepare for Much of the team’s preparation for this in Michael Frayn, who took 20 years this production. And a lot of that work show was about door math. Both Anton to hone this script. It was a great base was a collaboration between himself and Mark say that the door math was to start from, and together, with the and Anton, as the set also plays an the most interesting thing they had to creative team, they realized this play to important role in this show. figure out. Which way does each of its greatest potential. these 10 doors have to open? Where “It’s driven by circumstance and events does this character have to come out? by heather oliver that spiral out of control so you have When that character comes out, what to be very specific when you create the door do they exit? Mark shares he spent DOOR PHOTOS: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS physical world around it, and the set about half a day figuring out how the needs to function in a very particular doors open.