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Behind the big red curtain |
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Written by Andra Coberly
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Friday, 02 November 2007 |
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Often, what makes farce funny is how close it stays to reality.
It’s simply the ridiculous happenings in life pushed a bit further, sometimes peppered with slapstick or a few sexy jokes—and the audience responds, thinking happily, “it’s funny ‘cause it’s true.”
“We live farce everyday. The thing is, you gotta be able to laugh at it,” said OpenStage Theater director Judith Allen.
And behind many a big, red curtain is a real scene as farce-worthy as any.
Theater, ironically, makes the perfect setting for a farce. Actors with all their dramatics—constantly calling each other “darling” or “my love,” pausing to question their characters’ motivations, and all the rituals that come with theater-life—are quite the eccentric bunch. So thought Michael Frayn when he wrote his 1982 British farce “Noises Off,” which OpenStage Theater Co. opens Nov. 3.
In the weeks of rehearsal, as the OpenStage cast and crew worked toward opening night and a four-week run, the real chaos of theater ensued. And in some ways it fits into Frayn’s portrayal of backstage antics—except for the fact that no one was visibly intoxicated or wandering around with their pants around their ankles, at least not at the rehearsals this reporter attended.
But in OpenStage’s dusty warehouse and later for “tech week” at the Lincoln Center, the cast members seasoned each other with “darlings” and “sweet hearts” and they fooled around with props, calling for lines as director Allen stopped the run-through to get the sardines staging right.
Allen said it has even been confusing for the cast and crew: Both the OpenStage actors and their characters calling for lines and missing cues and moving props about. Allen is essentially directing actors playing actors and an actor playing a director who is directing actors.
Confusing indeed.
“Noises Off” is an ode to the production behind the production, where Frayn pokes fun at theater-people and their quirks in a fast-paced, physical three-act play. Frayn is said to have been standing backstage during the performance of a play he had written and found that the to-do off stage was much more entertaining. “Noises Off” illustrates just that: when backstage takes center stage, and the behind-the-scenes antics of a British drama troupe get the spotlight.
“This is getting farce-ical,” said one character in the midst of the Act 2 fiasco, when axes, cacti, sardines and a bouquet of flowers are all used as assault weapons between the rivaling actors.
In reality, backstage is not always so violent, Allen said. Though, she admits she was once knocked out cold while backstage during a show.
“I think you can talk to any actor and they’ll tell you a good backstage story,” she said. “As far as taking an axe to someone, I think there’s probably been contemplation, but we’ve haven’t lost an actor yet.”
Such is what farce is made of: real life but a bit bigger and a bit naughtier.
Being funny, Allen said, is about being natural. As she explains this, an actor walks onto the Lincoln Center stage heaving a loaded-down tool belt around his waste, cluttered with big yellow clips and doodads, he turns to the director to see what she thinks.
Allen’s eyes flash wide and she lets out a laugh. How do you make a tool belt funny?
“You don’t,” she said. It’s just how you tweak the ordinary.
“To do good comedy is to not try too hard, but let the silliness evolve out of what is natural and everyday,” Allen said. “It’s how you interact with each other and your facial expressions and how you make it just a bit bigger.”
And in the case of “Noises Off,” the comedy and slapstick is amplified. In British sex comedies, things get wacky, wild and risque.
“British sex comedy deals with apparent clichés and stereotypes, where women are running around in their underwear and men have their pants around their ankles. It’s in the tradition of Monty Python and Benny Hill. I’m really surprised that we don’t have a man dressed like a woman,” Allen said.
“But in British comedy, you need that sense of propriety,” she added.
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NOISES OFF
See the show Fridays and Saturdays Nov. 1-Dec. 1 and Sundays (Nov. 18 and 25) and Thursday (Nov. 29) at the Lincoln Center, 417 W. Magnolia St., Fort Collins. Call 221.6730 for tickets and information.
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