REVIEW: Noises Off - Newcastle Theatre Royal ★★★.5

This week at Newcastle Theatre Royal, Noises Off is showing (12-16th September), before continuing with the tour across the UK.

The play follows the rehearsal and subsequent shows of 'Nothing On,' a show full of sardines, bedroom farce, and chaos, played by a set of performers who also have a lot of issues going on backstage!

The cast were very good, considering they had to basically do the same script but in three different ways throughout the show, which I thought was very impressive. All of the cast were very comedic, and brought different elements to their characters throughout the three different sections of the play. I thought Dan Fredenburgh as Garry was particularly impressive in terms of the physical comedy, especially in the third section of the play.

I do think that whilst the show was funny, it was still quite dated, so a lot of the older audience members were finding it very funny, but younger audience members, not so much. There was some references to people who I hadn't heard of (but older members of the audience had), so those elements of the comedy were lost on me and people my age. Also, naturally, in the age of The Play That Goes Wrong which people of all ages adore, it's hard not to compare the two productions. Unfortunately, once this is done, Noises Off falls a little flat. But, Noises Off is over 40 years old, so to some extent maybe this should still be expected.

In the second act, there is the first half which shows the backstage chaos as the show is going on, which was really funny. Personally, I would've ended the show here, as to see the same show again, but with just additional things going wrong at the end of the tour was a bit boring after I'd already watched it twice before. This is just personal preference, and I could hear people behind me loving it.

I think this may be potentially one that everyone sees for themselves and creates their own opinion on - I've seen good reviews, I've seen bad reviews, and even within the theatre that night people loved it and some were indifferent to it.

For tickets at Newcastle: Noises Off - Newcastle Theatre Royal

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