MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College will stage the comedy “Noises Off” during the college’s sesquicentennial homecoming, with the opening performance Thursday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. in Kimmel Theatre.
Performances continue at 7 p.m. Oct. 17 and 18 and 2 p.m. Oct. 19. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for seniors and non-Cornell students. To reserve tickets, call 895-4293.
Written by Michael Frayn, “Noises Off” is about a British theater company performing a stereotypical British bedroom farce — although the Cornell adaptation shows a British bedroom farce being staged by an American theater company, using American references and jargon. The audience sees the production onstage and the goings-on backstage, thanks to scenic designer Scott Olinger’s two-story set that rotates on a turntable.
“It’s an interesting piece in terms of scenic demands to show off the capabilities of our new theater,” says director Mark Hunter, assistant professor of theatre and communications studies.
Kimmel Theatre opened in fall 2002 in Youngker Hall. The adjacent Armstrong Hall was renovated and reopened in August for music and theater.
“It’s a truly hilarious play that is well-celebrated for the quality of writing and sheer funniness. The types of plot complications in the play are just like those seen in the lives of the actors. It’s an astonishing feat of writing,” Hunter says.
“This is a kind of very broad farce, a physical comedy that our students have not had experience with in recent times. It requires such delicately calibrated teamwork that the cast must function as an organism. People are careening around a two-story stage with slamming doors and windows and axes being wielded,” he says.