Skowhegan players’ “Noises Off” pure fun

In theater, sound effects that take place offstage are called “noises off.” They serve as embellishment or complement to the action onstage. In “Noises Off,” Michael Frayn’s 1982 parody of life backstage in a London theater, the term applies to the squiggles and squabbles at the very center of theatrical life.

No, not memorizing lines and being fitted for costumes — although all that is part of “Noises Off,” too. But Frayn’s comedy is most nattily interested the temperamental, complicated breed of people known as actors.

The play, which previewed Thursday and runs through next weekend at Lakewood Theater in Skowhegan, is a farce-within-a-farce. The curtain opens to a cast of actors preparing for opening night of a cheeky sex comedy called “Nothing On.” The director, sitting in the audience, cajoles, consoles and complains as one performer tries to get her cues right, and another loses her contact lenses, and another tries to understand his character’s motivation and still another has disappeared altogether because he’s sloshed.

The action takes place both onstage and backstage with one rollicking hour that has been accurately labeled “the most difficult single act to perform ever written.” Everything that could go wrong does, and that doesn’t even take into account all the extracurricular emotional veni-vidi-vici between actors. It’s pure chaos.

And pure fun. “Noises Off” is shamelessly gleeful about the crazy life of the theater, and takes pleasure in exposing the unscripted parts of a third-rate company trying to find its way in performance.

The actors at Lakewood, under the direction of Jeffrey Quinn, are having their own little rendezvous with glee, too. This cast is having a blast, and that’s always fun to watch. When they have the jokes and gags running at speed, this production is very amusing.

Quinn, who also plays the role of Freddy, is particularly nimble with comic delivery. Other standouts are Mark Nadeau, whose Garry could easily be cast in a modern version of “The Honeymooners,” Robert Keniston, whose drunken Selsdin is a comedy routine unto himself, and Nathan Raleigh, who plays the stage manager with wry schtick.

When the scenes drag, they really drag, and there’s a niggling tendency to overdo stage business. But however yawnsome some parts are, the night as a whole is smartly entertaining. And there’s not a bad actor in the lot.

Frayn’s is an expertly written script and a big bite of theater for community performers. Except for a few little burps and bubbles, the Lakewood troupe digests “Noises Off” and presents a filling night of laughs.

“Noises Off” will be performed 8 p.m. July 18 and 23-25, and 2 p.m. July 19, 22 and 25 at Lakewood Theater in Skowhegan. For tickets, call 474-7176.