Noises Off response_Paul Ahn
The beginning of “Noise off” introduces the fiasco rehearsals and the problems it poses to the whole staff in production. The film comically describes the irritating problems the director might have during the rehearsal like the constant problem with the set prop sardine and news paper. Actors are forgetting lines, set doors are getting shut, timings are sometimes off, all of these elements come together to give the viewer a very distracting and yet very funny insight to the productions that is called theater. Not to mention the presence of Tim, the set technician, who was not able to sleep for 48 hours fixing things here and there, tripping on things, loosing his mind. Everything is very fast paced which reminds me of slapstick comedy. Even actors personal life comes into the element where the actor “Freddy” begins to question his scenes. He fundamentally asks why he does certain actions during his scene such as leaving grocery in the set’s living room, why not take it to his study? Such question does seem random and it turns out his wife left him on that day and he was just being moody. It does seem unprofessional but I think it shows that theater, unlike films, really takes account of who the actors themselves are in real life. In some cases in can go against the actual characters of the play or it can well with the characters the actor play. For example, the lens wearing always confusing Brooks plays a similar character in the play. Note that the director worries about that fact that after rehearsals the director will be off somewhere else and the actors will be on there one which reflects the real life nature of theater production.
The film it self was hilarious, the timings and how it all comes together made me laugh constantly. The misunderstandings between actors and Freddy’s confusions create a perfect comical duo. After few successful productions the cast starts to fall apart again (favorite part was the curtain rising announcements). But even with everything falling apart backstage, when the time comes the actors rigidly follow their roles and successfully play their part. Ingenuity of the film is that when they start the performance, the stage becomes and backstage and the backstage becomes the front for the viewer because now the entangling relationship between the actor themselves plays out as a farce. The only audition there being the security guard which finds it all too ridiculous. Passing of the booze bottle between the stage actors in order to prevent the alcoholic Selsdon from passing out before his role and the constant beatings Garry give to Freddy is amazing. One can see that in order to coordinate a farce a lot of practice will be required. Also the ad-libs they produce in order to avoid catastrophes are a treat. While the theater in the film does eventually fall apart but as the front stage becomes more and more unstable the scenes showing the backstage becomes even more comical. In finale as they reach Cleveland the whole things just falls apart completely but in fact the backstage and the front stage comes together. Both farce becomes one, and “Nothing On” becomes “Noises Off”. But in the end the actual productions becomes successful in New York with a bit of miracle and lots of failures on the road. I never been in the theater business but it seems to me the business of theater can be a very personal down to earth(probably not as severe as the film).
Comments (2)