Blank Canvas Theatre’s ‘Noise Off’ is a few door slams off from good

“Noises Off”, currently onstage at Blank Canvas Theatre, is a 1982 farce penned by English playwright Michael Frayn. The title is taken from the theatrical stage direction indicating sounds coming from offstage. Frayn got the idea for “Noises Off” while watching another one of his shows from back stage.

The three acts (lasting over three hours) are a play within a play that shows the evolution of an English sex farce called “Nothing On”. Act one is an after midnight dress rehearsal in which the actors are not even close to mastering even the basics of the production. They are less than a day from opening for a ten month tour. The cast is hamstrung by entrances, exits, missed cues, missed lines, stuck doors and bothersome props (including several plates of sardines). This drives the director Lloyd Dallas into a seething rage which carries through into the other two acts. Stage manager Tim Allgood (Peter Seidl) has gone 48 hours without sleep while attempting to repair the deteriorating stage set.

Act two takes place back stage two months later during a matinee performance “on the road”. The relationships between actors have deteriorated to the point of open hostility. Lloyd is “involved” with assistant stage manager Poppy Norton (Mairéid Hilliard) as well as Brook Ashton (Amy McKenzie Pilgrim). Brook got the part on the strength of her relationship with Lloyd as she has zero acting ability and a propensity to lose her contact lenses on stage. The show is financed by Dotty Norton (Lindsay Pier) who has sunk her nest egg into the production and plays the house keeper. She is in a May/December relationship with Gary Lejeaune (Joe Kenderes) who is jealous of any attention paid to Dotty. Belinda Blair (Lauren Koleszak) and Gary own the house but are on the lam (supposedly in Spain) for tax evasion. Freddie Fellows (Tyler Murray), who is subject to nose bleeds which causes him to pass out, has arrived with Brook in order to have sex in what they think is an empty house. Breaking into the house is Selsdan Mowbray (John Lynch) who bemoans his former career as a high end thief.

Act three is at the tail end of the tour with the performance seen from the audience’s perspective once more. Nothing is going well on either side of the stage as battles rage, props go missing and the entire production disintegrates into absolute chaos. The actors are simply hanging on hoping to reach the show’s end in one piece.

So how does this production measure up? This is the third time I have seen this particular show and quite frankly I found it underwhelming. My first question was...”Why puppets?”. The answer is (according the cast bios) “Miron Gusso received his M.A. in Puppetry from the University of Connecticut where “Noises Off” with Puppets was his thesis project. So they had puppets, why not use them. I mean they really are great looking puppets it just took away from the more madcap aspect of the show.

In the puppet-less version there are far more prat falls, lost props, wrong props in the wrong hands, and general shenanigans. This adaptation has the actors seemingly hiding behind the puppets and avoiding the really funny bits. There is also a lack of slamming doors (a vital comic touch in the other productions). This is due to the flimsy nature of the BCT set. Recorded door slams might have helped (script note: Noises Off-Door Slam). In short, if I would use one word to describe this production it would be the word “flimsy”. While the actors give it their best shots the show does not live up to its potential.

While fast paced and engaging this production lacks the comic spark that has had audiences laughing for 44 years. It’s funny but not as funny and madcap but not as madcap. Sometimes less is more.

The Blank Canvas Theatre’s production of “Noises Off” will be onstage at 78th Street Studios, 1305 West 78^th Street, Suite #211, Cleveland, Ohio through June 27, 2026. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.blankcanvastheatre.com/ or call (440) 941-0458.