Noises Off – Theatre by the Lake

The summer season is underway in the Lake District, and Theatre by the Lake is attracting many tourists to see a farce about a farce that wouldn’t have looked out of place in an end-of-pier theatre.

Noises Off, in some ways, is the mother of the hugely successful ‘Play that went wrong’ productions that are taking the West End and TV by storm. Written in 1982 by Michael Frayn, it breaks the fourth wall and literally turns the theatre 180 degrees to present the behind-the-curtain tale of a touring theatre company.

Though written in the 1980s, this farce has a much earlier feel to it, and some of the references may be lost on a younger audience. A telephone plugged into the wall is a key part of the production, as is the stereotype of the alcoholic old actor and the Benny Hill-style young, slim woman in sexy underwear. (For younger readers, Mr Hill had a weekly comedy TV show on one of just three channels which involved old men chasing young, half-naked women around parks, shops, offices…)

Noises Off is a Theatre by the Lake, New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich, Queens Theatre Hornchurch and Théâtre de al Ville de Luxembourg production.

The play is in three parts, each showing the same scene from the touring play from a different perspective and time. The opening scene is the dress rehearsal, when we are introduced to Dotty, an actor who is doing the tour, playing the housekeeper to build up her retirement fund. Her initial exchanges with the long-suffering director, Lloyd Dalla, played beautifully by Harry Long, set off the escapades confidently. 

When the estate agent brings his girlfriend to what he believes is an empty house, the farce begins. As actors, Brooke Ashton and Garry LeJeune,  Alisia Joy and  George Kemp present two very different types of actors, both equally funny.  Brooks’s continual loss of contact lenses took me back to sit coms in the 70s when this was a regular occurrence – however, with disposable contacts now, the joke doesn’t work anymore. Joy’s spaced-out physical comedy is perfectly timed and executed to the joy of the audience.

The owners of the house, a tax-exile writer and his wife, return in secret to avoid a massive tax bill, and the on-stage comedy continues.

However, behind the scenes, Brook and the stage hand Poppy Norton-Taylor, played by Gemma Salter, are both having a secret affair (separately) with the director. Mature actor Dotty Otley is having a fling with handsome, young lead actor Garry LeJeune, and the actor playing the tax-exile writer Frederick Fellowes, played by Hisham Abdel Razek, has just been dumped by his wife.

The second act takes us to a production later in the run, and a behind-the-scenes view of how the farce off stage is going. The physical comedy really comes into play here. The pace picks up in this part of the production, though it isn’t as fast as in modern-style farces. There are some very funny moments, which the audience lapped up.

As we move into the third part of the play, we witness the workhorses of the theatre perform their skills. The stage management team disassembles and reassembles the set, and it is really interesting to see how this works. They got the biggest cheer of the night at the curtain call, much to the embarrassment of one of them, who blushed. This is probably why they chose to work behind the scenes, so they never had to face the audience. Seeing how hard they work, when we are usually enjoying a drink in the bar, brought a new appreciation for the unseen team behind every production.

The final scene is the last night of the play, and Russell Richardson as Selsdon Mowbray, the old lush playing the robber, is very funny.

This is a traditional style comedy about an equally old school farce that is an escape from the troubles of the world, and ideal for a holiday theatre trip. Like the Carry On films, it is family entertainment which can be viewed on many levels – though you may have to explain to your kids what a landline is!

Noises Off is at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick until Saturday, 26th July. https://www.theatrebythelake.com/

Reviewer: Karen Morley-Chesworth

Reviewed: 26th June 2025

North West End UK Rating: