In Russia in 1906, Vsevolod Meyerhold directed Alexander Blok’s play Balaganchik (sometimes translated as “Farce”). “Respectable citizens” let out “whistles and roars of anger” after being confronted with the workings of the stage illusion: backstage machinery on view; “the Author” interrupting the action, etc. Ground was broken. Since its 1982 London premiere, audiences have roared approbation for Michael Frayn’s similarly convention-bending play – a farce-within-a-farce about a touring troupe whose intimate workings are revealed over the course of three acts: at the dress rehearsal, backstage during the run and on stage on the last night.
Today’s audiences are used to being ricocheted between belief and disbelief by theatrical fictions (in playhouses, on piers, in hotels…). The Octagon’s artistic director David Thacker is well aware of this. His varied stagings over the past six seasons have consistently demonstrated his command of shifting scales of reality and unreality. Now that he is hanging up his AD’s hat (although he will guest direct), Noises Off is a vertiginously theatrical farewell choice. Actors play actors playing characters in a fictional farce that hilariously concludes with their “actor” characters falling to pieces while in fictional character. Thacker’s cast (and scene-changing crew) keep tight control of the mayhem and deliver a side-splitting view of theatre and (for those in reflective mood) a bittersweet take on life.
