NOISES OFF

“The timing is so rapid fire that this production needs a truly first-rate cast of performers to pull it off. Fortunately, the performers in the production opening the fall season at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater are more than capable of delivering. In fact, this production is one of the finest examples I’ve seen in a while of how good an ensemble cast can be.” – Michael Freeman, Freeline Media

“Orlando Shakes has opened its season with ‘Noises Off,’ and director Jim Helsinger giddily and delightfully captures the spirit of silliness this play epitomizes. Life is all about ‘doors and sardines,’ the director of the play-within-the-play tells his hapless actors — and so is farce. Moving props, slamming doors, Helsinger’s performers land their laughs with gusto.”
– Matt Palm, Orlando Sentinel

“The production of this fantastic and funny farce at Orlando Shakes did not disappoint. The pacing was strong, the actors brought each character to life in hilarious fashion, and the overall 70’s-chic designs made for a thoroughly enjoyable night at the theatre. And, judging by the raucous laughter echoing through the Margeson Theater, I think the audience around me agreed wholeheartedly.”
– Joseph Harrison, Broadway World

Dotty Otley / Mrs. Clacket:
(Off stage Dotty) A late-middle-aged British actress. Dating Garry, though she attempts to make him jealous by meeting with Freddy.
(On Stage Character: Mrs. Clackett): A Cockney Housekeeper for the Brent’s home in England.

Brooke Ashton / Vicki:
(Off Stage: Brooke) A young inexperienced British actress. Pays no attention to other performers, either in performance or backstage.
(On Stage Character: Vicki): An English woman who works for Inland Revenue and is trying to woo Roger.

Belinda Blair / Flavia Brent:
(Off stage: Belinda) Cheerful and sensible, a reliable British actress. She may have feelings for Freddy.
(On Stage Character: Flavia Brent): Phillip Brent’s English wife. She is dependable, though not one for household duties.

Poppy Norton-Taylor: Stage Manager. Emotional and oversensitive, and envious of Brooke, whom she understudies. Carrying Lloyd’s child.

Lloyd Dallas: The director of the play, Nothing On.

Garry Lejeune / Roger:
(Off stage: Garry) A British actor who never finishes a sentence. Dating Dotty.
(On Stage Character: Roger): An English Real estate agent who is attempting to rent Flavia’s and Phillip’s home, but uses it for his own personal benefit.

Frederick Fellows /Phillip Brent / Sheikh :
(Off stage: Freddy) A British actor with a serious fear of violence and blood.
(On Stage Character: Phillip Brent): An Englishman who lives out of the country with his wife Flavia to avoid paying taxes.
(On Stage Character: Sheikh): A MiddleEastern, Interested in renting Flavia’s and Phillip’s home and is the spitting image of Phillip.

Selsdon Mowbray / Burglar:
(Off Stage: Selsdon Mowbray): An elderly alcoholic Englishman who hides his bottles onstage.
(On Stage Character: Burglar): Old Cockney man in his seventies, breaking into the Brent’s home.

Timothy Allgood: An over-worked Assistant Stage Manager. Understudies Selsdon and Freddy.

Michael Frayn, (born September 8, 1933, London, England), British playwright, novelist, and translator whose work is often compared to that of Anton Chekhov for its focus on humorous family situations and its insights into society. Frayn is perhaps best known for his long-running, internationally successful stage farce Noises Off (1982; film 1992), a frenetic play-within-a-play about the antics of an English theatrical company touring the provinces and its inept attempts at performing a typically English sex farce.

Frayn graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1957 and worked as a newspaper reporter, columnist, and critic for the Manchester Guardian and The Observer. In the early 1960s several collections of essays from his newspaper columns were published; his later travel writing for The Observer was collected as Travels with a Typewriter (2009). A wide-ranging and prolific author, Frayn wrote novels, plays, documentary films, and teleplays. He also translated and adapted several plays by Chekhov.

Frayn’s own plays are primarily comedies or tragicomedies. Alphabetical Order (1976) concerns the dehumanization that occurs when a chaotic newspaper office is transformed by an overly efficient employee. In Make and Break (1980) a salesman loses his humanity though he gains business success. Frayn’s other plays included Donkeys’ Years (1977), Benefactors (1984), Here: A Play in Two Acts (1993), Copenhagen (1998), Democracy (2003), and Afterlife (2008).

Among Frayn’s novels were The Tin Men (1965), The Russian Interpreter (1966), A Very Private Life (1968), The Trick of It (1989), Now You Know (1992), Headlong (1999), Spies (2002), and Skios (2012). My Father’s Fortune (2010) was a memoir.