Noises Off. A farce about a theater troupe doing a terrible production of an even worse play could get too meta — what if this production really is terrible? And could you tell? Trust me, you could.
But you needn’t worry about that with Noises Off, perhaps the most bulletproof slamming-door romp since Moliere died, given an engaging staging from Contemporary Theatre of Dallas.
It’s hard to talk about the plot and characters in a play intended to trade in broad stereotypes, but suffice it to say Chad Gowen Spear, pictured right, percolates hilariously as the show’s harried director, who’s also sleeping with two of the cast members; Carine Rice is a sexy bombshell as the show’s empty-headed ingenue; and Lloyd Harvey adds an unexpected zing as the perpetually startled Indian stagehand, working two days without sleep.
Director Robin Armstrong for sets all the mechanics in motion as it builds from Act 1 (the disastrous final dress) to Act 2 (the collapsing show from behind the scenes) to Act 3 (the play’s final, failed performance).
At the Contemporary Theatre of Dallas through June 29.
Good People. When we first meet middle-aged Boston mom Margie (Jessica Cavanaugh), she seems like a slacker who has an excuse for everything. When he boss fires her from the dollar store for being perpetually late,we’re sympathetic but unsentimental. Ditto when she asks her ex-boyfriend (James Crawford), now a hot-shot doctor, for a job in his office, and he turns her down because there are no openings. She can’t take “no” for an answer, though, making a few passive-aggressive jabs until he invites her to a dinner party out of obligation.
But what’s so wonderful about Good People — directed, as always, with deft understanding for the subtleties of humanity by Rene Moreno — is how it turns all our expectations around. Margie is a complainer, someone who blames everyone but herself for her financial straits. But she’s also a real person, living a real life, with a sense of obligation we don’t fully fathom until the end.
Set in Boston’s Southie working-class neighborhood, David Lindsay-Abaire’s comedy-drama gives context to the culture of hand-to-mouth living as well as what it takes to see how the other half lives.
It wouldn’t be nearly as effective if Cavanaugh didn’t deliver this year’s top performance to date: That Car Talk whine, the shabby sense style, that masked prejudice of lowered expectations make her Margie a compelling, complex heroine whose life has been road-tested by the countless heels she’s encountered along the way.
Crawford nearly matches her by also causing us to pivot on a dime, from respect to contempt for someone who things he got out of the neighborhood on talent alone, but who, like Gwyneth Paltrow, will never fully fathom how selfish he has become. Good People is a bad title for an excellent play.
At WaterTower Theatre through June 29.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition June 6, 2014.