It may be Felicity Kendal’s name above the title but I’m much more interested in Joseph Millson and Alexander Hanson joining the cast of this tour of Noises Off
The full cast is announced today for the 40th Anniversary tour of Michael Frayn’s multi award-winning farce, Noises Off, which will open at Theatre Royal Bath from 22 September 2022, before heading on to Richmond, Brighton and Cambridge.
Joining the previously announced Felicity Kendal (The Good Life, Relatively Speaking and Hay Fever) as Dotty Otley will be stage and screen actors Tracy-Ann Oberman (EastEnders, Friday Night Dinner and Edmond) as Belinda Blair and Matthew Kelly (The Dresser, Waiting For Godot, as well as hosting Stars In Their Eyes and You Bet!) as Selsdon Mowbray.
The full cast will include Alexander Hanson as Lloyd Dallas, Joseph Millson as Garry Lejeune, Sasha Frost as Brooke Ashton, Pepter Lunkhuse as Poppy Norton Taylor, Jonathan Coy as Fredrick Fellows, and Hubert Burton as Tim
One of the greatest British comedies ever written, Noises Off will be directed by Lindsay Posner (God of Carnage, Hay Fever, Stones in his Pockets)
Michael Frayn’s celebrated play serves up a riotous double bill – a play within a play. Hurtling along at breakneck speed, Noises Off follows the on and off-stage antics of a touring theatre company as they stumble their way through the fictional farce, Nothing On. From the shambolic final rehearsals before opening night in Weston-super-Mare, to a disastrous matinee in Ashton-Under-Lyme seen entirely, and hilariously silently, from backstage, before we share their final, brilliantly catastrophic performance in Stockton-on-Tees.
After watching from the wings a production of his 1970 farce The Two of Us with Richard Briers and Lynn Redgrave and noting that the goings on behind the scenes were funnier than out front, Michael Frayn wrote Noises Off. The original production opened in London in 1982 before becoming a worldwide hit. A feature film was made of Noises Off in 1992.
Noises Off is written by Michael Frayn. The creative team for this 40th Anniversary production includes Lindsay Posner (Director), Simon Higlett (Designer), Paul Pyant (Lighting Designer), Greg Clarke (Sound Designer), Will Stuart (Composer), Ruth Cooper-Brown (Movement and Fight Director), George Jibson (Associate Director), Ginny Schiller (Casting Director).