Joyful Noises

by Toby Zinman

"That's what it's all about—doors and sardines." And that sure is what Noises Off—the hilarious farce by Michael Frayn (who, in a more serious moment, wrote Copenhagen)—is all about.

This top-notch cast under William Roudebush's direction give all the doors and all the sardines their due. I've seen this show half-a-zillion times, and although it's never as funny as it is the first time, I found myself laughing helplessly—again—by Act 3.

Act 1 is the dress rehearsal for a British comedy called Nothing On, which an aging actress (Ann-Ngaire Martin) has decided to take on tour as a farewell to the stage and a chance to make some retirement money. The rehearsal is going badly: She keeps forgetting her lines or her plate of sardines. The plot involves a real estate agent (Ian Merrill Peakes) who brings a sexy young woman (Karen Peakes) to a house which he pretends is his, only to find the real owners (Greg Wood and Susan Riley Stevens) have returned from Spain. There's also a burglar (John Peakes). This is complicated by the show's exasperated director (Joe Guzmán), as well as the stage manager (Denise Taylor) and the set designer/handyman/understudy (Aaron Cromie with a delicious Scottish accent).

Then they flip the set so that Act 2 takes place backstage while Nothing On goes on in increasingly shambolic fashion for the unseen audience. Meanwhile, the backstage plot becomes more frenzied—love affairs between the director and the stage manager, between the director and the sexy ingénue (who keeps losing her contact lenses), between the leading man and Dotty, the aging actress. All this, and the aging actor, Selsdon, has an ever-worsening hearing problem and a drinking problem. But because the show is going on out front, the actors have to be silent backstage and try to make their entrances on time.

Then they flip the set again (it's worth watching through one intermission) and Act 3 gives us the same show we saw rehearsed in Act 1 but at the end of the tour when it is a hilarious mess.

One can only imagine the real-life, real-backstage farces going on, since Denise Taylor is the real director's wife, and the Peakes family (Ian, his wife, Karen, and his father, John) are there in force, giving amusing performances (Ian's spectacular tumbling down the stairs is a wonder).

The Lenape Regional Arts Center has free parking, comfy chairs, good sightlines and high prices (all seats $45) for what is essentially a huge, well-appointed high school auditorium. NOISES OFF Through Oct. 10, Lenape Regional Performing Arts Center, 130 Tomlinson Mill Rd., Marlton, N.J., 856-983-3366