​Community Players of Concord Present 'Noises Off' this Weekend

CONCORD, NH — In this deliriously funny, fast moving farce, a troupe of traveling, second-rate actors attempts to stage a play called Nothing On, a campy sex farce that includes the classic tropes of doors slamming open and shut, pretty young women running around in lingerie, and old men dropping their trousers. Act One begins at midnight, just hours before the first public performance, as the exasperated director struggles to prod the hopelessly unprepared cast through their only dress rehearsal, endlessly thwarted by bungled entrances and exits, missed cues, and misplaced props, including a pesky plate of sardines.

Act Two depicts this motley crew a month into the run during a weekday matinee performance, but this time we behold the action from a backstage vantage point, where the personal grudges, love triangles and various deteriorating relationships are only compounding the comic catastrophes occurring on stage and off.

In Act Three, near the end of the show's ten week run, we watch in mounting hysterical horror as the show spins further and further out of control, careening toward a complete meltdown, while the few marginally competent actors in the group desperately trying to ad lib the on stage debacle toward some kind of ending.

This “farce within a farce” is pure fun, from its absurdly comical beginning to its explosively funny end. In fact, the New York Post called Noises Off "the funniest farce ever written."

Tickets for this Community Players of Concord production cost $18/$16 each, though tickets purchased on line prior to Feb. 8 receive a $2 per ticket discount. Audi Box Office hours are Wednesday through Saturday, Feb. 8-11, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 12, noon-2 p.m.

The show is considered to be rated PG-13.

Director Pat Delzell is excited for the opportunity to direct this comic masterpiece, a show she calls "the Mount Everest of theatre." With its lightening fast pace, split second timing and myriad physical comedy, Delzell treats the show as “a boisterous ballet,” and a "love letter and inside joke to those of us who love theatre." Delzell stated that "most theatre people have experienced disasters during a show. Stories of missed cues, falling scenery, and crumbling costumes are part of our party conversations, so a show devoted to such craziness, told from the inside, is an irresistible treat."

Indeed, casting the show was extremely difficult, because dozens of talented actors turned out to audition for the nine roles in the show. The resulting cast features many well known community actors from around the state, who have worked extremely hard to master the rapid fire comedic choreography this show requires. Audiences are in for a fantastically funny treat.

Credit: Cast photo with Pat Delzell at center; group photo, from left to right: Sue Bechard, Chad Boutin, Chris Demers, Paula Demers, Natalie Sailor, and Matt McGonagle; Chad Boutin, Chris Demers and Paula Demers, in a "backstage" altercation surrounding a love triangle misunderstanding; and Matt McGonagle, as Selsdon, the experienced but alcoholic actor who plays a burglar in the "farce within a farce."

Submitted by Ellen Burger.