“Noises Off”: This is your quintessential frantic, door-slamming British farce.
If you’ve recently had stitches anywhere in your torso area then you’ll want to avoid this show — or you will understand what “bust a gut” really means.
The Driftwood Players present this raucous comedy, which opens at 8 Friday night at the Wade James Theatre in Edmonds.
This play within a play was written by Tony-award winner Michael Frayn.
The plot follows an inept group of actors who attempt to put on a sex farce but who instead become so involved in their own backstage dalliances that madness occurs just behind the curtain.
This comedy is full of high jinks, howls, one dramatic highlight, double and regular entendres, and lots of physical comedy.
This isn’t funny stuff just to be funny; things happen for a reason, which is each actor’s particular compulsion — control, power, submission, what have you.
And the result? Compulsions tend to be our undoing.
The play is normally done in three acts. In the first act, the cast prepares for opening night. The troupe’s womanizing director, Lloyd Fellowes, tries desperately to get the cast ready while juggling his two love interests: stage manager Poppy Taylor and beautiful but ditsy actress Vicki.
The second act follows the motley crew through a matinee performance in which their backstage trysts unravel.
The third act sends the cast careering off the cliff.
The play gives the audience the idea that these productions do come with a lot of backstage intrigue that we don’t normally see. Though we assume most backstage antics don’t involve people getting attacked with axes, we have a hint that there’s drama behind that curtain that we are totally unaware of.
“Noises Off” opens at 8 Friday night with performances at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through June 30 at Wade James Theatre, 950 Main St., Edmonds.
Tickets are $25 and $22. Call 425-774-9600 or go to www.driftwoodplayers.com.
Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424; tgoffredo@heraldnet.com.
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