ENTERTAINMENT
'Noises Off premieres at WCC
by Carrie Eckmann

Noises Off,” a contemporary British comedy with the slapstick humor of Monty Python, will run April 16 through May 2 in WCC’s Palikü Theatre.

Directed by Ron Bright, the play follows the hilarious antics of a British touring company as they prepare to open their show, “Nothing On.”

“Basically, it is a play-within-a-play that shows what can happen when human foibles intersect with the show-must-go-on determination of a cast and crew,” said Bright.

Why was this particular play chosen? “This is the one we felt would be the most fun to do,” Bright explained. “ It’s a neat little challenge, and it’ll have community spirit because the community’s involved with it.” To his knowledge, he said it has never been performed before in Hawai‘i.

The play is an adult farce—“adult” because it contains some sexual innuendos, one of the characters spends much of her time on stage clad only in undergarments, and there is one use of an impolite word. Consequently, Bright recommends it for families with children 13 or older.

Nevertheless, “everything is funny; everything is farcical,” he said. The play is “a light, happy, come-to-laugh, enjoyable kind of thing.”

Working with a group of seasoned performers has been a joy for Bright, who has been producing musicals with large casts of less experienced actors since the opening of Castle High School’s Performing Arts Center in 1983.

“All my life, I’ve worked with kids,” Bright said. “And kids normally have to be taught.” But in “Noises Off” he’s enjoying directing already-experienced actors, instead of teaching from the basics.

“It’s not that I wanted to (do only musicals) because I love to do straight plays,” Bright said. But when you’re working with 60 kids from several schools, he said, you do a musical.

Putting on “Noises Off” has not been easy. The play has three acts, and in the second act the entire set is turned around. The audience views the play from backstage, watching the actors with their squabbles while others are heard performing in the background.

For the actors in “Noises Off”, that act is hard, Bright says, because the action backstage must be timed perfectly with what is happening on stage, and the actors backstage are not listening to the action on the other side.

“If it weren’t this particular show, I would say it’s easier to do a straight play” than a musical, Bright said.

Be prepared to enjoy the play. There’s so much action on stage that at times your mind is kept busy trying to catch everything. But, Bright said it will keep the audience laughing.

“If the audience doesn’t laugh from beginning to end, they have no pulse,” he said, chuckling. “I’m serious because it really is a very funny show.”

Performances are Friday nights at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $21 for adults; $19 for seniors 62 and over, active military personnel and UH system faculty and staff; and $15 for UH system students and children.

sThey can be charged by phone by calling 235-7433, purchased online at eTicketHawaii.com or in person at the Hale Kuhina ticket office.