Noises Off Response
“Noises Off,” a sex farce by Michael Frayn is skilfully adapted into a motion picture by director, Peter Bogdanovich. What I found unique and quite central to this work’s appeal was the use of the concept of having “a play within a play,” or based on the movie I saw, rather “a play within a movie.” Having these two layers to the farce, I felt, was key in establishing the overall theme of the play. On one level, the characters of the play, which Lloyd Fellowes (played by Michael Caine in the movie) directed in the play within the movie, “Nothing On,” were expected to be one-dimensional, irrational, and naturally comedic. But, extending this theme to the “outer plot,” where the actors and their inter-connected lives, were made to replicate (and often even amplify) the farce-like qualities of the characters they played in “Nothing On” was the main draw and kept the plot outrageously alive and flowing. Frayn’s genius was skilfully transcribed on to the screen by Bogdanovich, but a theatre depiction of the same would have been more interesting to watch, simply because I wonder how and to what extent a director would use the stage, sets and the actors (which, seems much more complex and a far more daunting task!).
“Noises Off” stays true to the nature of farce from its beginning to end, by having characters, each written to be faithful to his/her own objective, who remain the same, with no transformation. This is key to the progression of the script’s narrative as the characters of “Noises Off” soon start transcribing their characteristics to those of “Nothing On.” With subsequent shows, as the troupe moves city to city (before they reach for their premiere in Broadway), their stage performances run off-course from the script as the actors, who are involved in a sex farce of their own, let personal grudges permeate into their stage characters. The fading starlet Dotty Otley, who is married to Selsdon and having an affair with Garry, is seen most explicitly going off-script and not following any narrative sequence as she tries to provoke Garry by showing interest in Freddy. Garry is also seen malfunctioning on stage as he is easily envious of Freddy and Lloyd, who Dotty seems to be using to make Garry jealous. The true fabric of the farce is preserved as “Nothing On,” even after having massive malfunctions on stage, makes its audience laugh – the audience is made to assume that all what is going on wrong on stage, as a part of the farce, is, well, just a part of the script. At the end of the film, we see a nervous Lloyd heading back to the Broadway theatre where his production, too, is coming to an end. And, as the gates open, and he steps in to the theatre, a thunderous applause is seen and unlike all the other performances this one looks like it went perfectly. What a complete farce, is it not?