„Noises Off” – a farce according to Klata at the 29th festival

Our theatre marathon is well on its way – „Noises Off” („Czego nie widać”) by Michael Frayn, directed by Jan Klata, was presented last weekend. Thanks to the team of Wybrzeże Theatre and to our audience who filled our Big Stage house to its capacity. See the photos of the Saturday (18 March, 2023) night. 

Jan Klata and Michael Frayn? It was a surprise that the director, famous for his controversial spectacles which often cross the social decorum, this time took the classical farce, sometimes called the queen of farce, written by Michael Frayn. Even more surprising was the fact that it premiered while the war in Ukraine has been still going on. What was the intention of the creator who not long ago talked about war and the root of all evil in his spectacle „The Trojan Women” („Trojanki”)? What does Klata’s gesture mean?      

The plot of Frayn’s play revolves around unexpected events of a theatrical troup rehearsing a sex farce called „Nothing On” („Co widać”). It is the third dress rehearsal and the cast are hopelessly unready. We know that this is not going to work out. And it is only the beginning… It is a play within a play, it shows the theatre from the backstage, the scenes not available for everyday viewers. The theatre its presents is not only the artists’ workplace but their home and a way of life as well.          

But according to Klata „Noises Off” is not just a farce. The spectacle is decoded on several levels. On the first, literal level it is a play within a play. Theatre behind the scenes, with all mistakes the actors try to hide from the audience, causing comic results. On the next level, Klata travesties the farce form, exaggerates it – he does not care about giving us fun but we wants to create a feeling of distance and discomfort, to confound the receiver. He does not produce a „farce machine” to make people laugh. In the farce procession he includes a context of the war in Ukraine,  with pictures of the Moscow Victory Day parade and a song „Atomic Bomb” by William Onyeabor in the background.  There are references to the war in the dialogues which emphasize the necessity of wearing a bulletproof vest while leaving home. The whole staging is therefore put in inverted commas. It is ironic and it is not what it seems to be at a glance.

After the spectacle Jacek Cieślak talked to its creators. The director perversely emphasized that for him the choice of a farce was a search for a strategy which would correspond to the modern context. He also said that in „Noises Off” he analyzed theatre understood as a strategy to survive (though, as he noted, Polish theatrical life was for him a farce and in a crisis). Actors and actresses underlined that the complex meaning of the Łódź presentation of „Noises Off” was overlapped with the bombing of Mariupol theatre which happened a year ago.

 

Wybrzeże Theatre in Gdańsk
Michael Frayn
„Noises Off” („Czego nie widać”)
Translation: Karol Jakubowicz and Małgorzata Semil
Adaptation, direction and music arrangement: Jan Klata
Stage design, costumes, light, poster project: Mirek Kaczmarek
Stage movement: Maćko Prusak
Cast: Katarzyna Figura, Piotr Biedroń, Jakub Nosiadek, Magdalena Gorzelańczyk, Agata Woźnicka, Cezary Rybiński, Dorota Androsz, Robert Ninkiewicz, Krzysztof Matuszewski

 

Photo Maciej Zakrzewski