The 40th anniversary production of one of the greatest British comedies ever written, Noises Off, returns to Bath with a stellar cast featuring Liza Goddard (The Brothers, Doctor Who, Bergerac, Roll Over Beethoven), Matthew Kelly (Cold Blood, Bleak House, Benidorm) and Simon Shepherd (Peak Practice, Posh, Hay Fever). Lindsay Posner’s staging of Michael Frayn’s award-winning farce visits the Theatre Royal Bath from Tuesday 19 to Saturday 23 September as part of a UK tour.
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-Lyne seen entirely, and hilariously silently, from backstage, before sharing their final, brilliantly catastrophic performance in Stockton-on-Tees.
One of the UK’s favourite actresses, Liza Goddard stars as Dotty Otley. Liza has performed at Bath’s Theatre Royal in a huge variety of productions, most recently in Relatively Speaking at the start of 2023 and Sherlock Holmes: The Final Curtain in 2018. Now marking her twenty-first production in Bath in the past thirty years, she has previously played the Theatre Royal in six plays by Alan Ayckbourn and starred as Good Fairy in the Bath pantomime Sleeping Beauty in 2009. She also toured to the Theatre Royal in the musical High Society in 2005, the comedy She Stoops to Conquer in 2008 and the thriller Dangerous Obsession in 2006. Her extensive television work includes cult classics The Brothers, Doctor Who, Bergerac, the Australian series Skippy (The Bush Kangaroo) and Take Three Girls; and the comedies Roll Over Beethoven, Pig in the Middle, The Upchat Line and Yes Honestly. For children’s television, she played Mrs Jessop in the ITV series Woof! and narrated Bernard’s Watch. Liza has also made guest appearances in BBC’s Wild West, Casualty and ITV’s Midsomer Murders.
Olivier Award-winning actor Matthew Kelly reprises the role of Selsdon Mowbray. His West End credits include Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellen, Big The Musical, Funny Peculiar, Lend Me A Tenor!, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Sign of the Times and the role of Lennie in Of Mice and Men, for which he received the Olivier Award for Best Actor. His recent theatre credits include the role of Selsdon in Noises Off at the Theatre Royal Bath and on tour in 2022, prior to a West End transfer in spring 2023. He also starred as Sir in The Dresser at the Theatre Royal in 2021 and on tour, and in Pride and Prejudice at Regent’s Park, which toured to Bath in 2017. Since 1983, Matthew’s previous nine productions at the Theatre Royal have also included Educating Rita in 2012 and Toast in 2016. His television credits include the award-winning drama Cold Blood, Bleak House, Benidorm, Moving On and, as a presenter, the hit television series You Bet! and Stars in their Eyes.
The role of Lloyd Dallas is played by Simon Shepherd. Well known on television for starring as Dr Will Preston in ITV’s Peak Practice, his many screen credits also include Shakespeare and
Hathaway, Casualty, Father Brown, Death in Paradise, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries and Chancer, and the films Wuthering Heights and Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V. Simon’s many theatre credits include the West End productions of Hay Fever, The Duck House, Art, Rapture and Posh. Simon has previously starred at the Theatre Royal Bath in Mrs Warren’s Profession in 2022, Art in 2005, The Rocky Horror Show in 2007, Born in the Gardens in 2008 for The Peter Hall Company, Hay Fever in 2014 and My Cousin Rachel in 2019.
They cast is completed by Simon Coates as Frederick Fellowes, Lucy Robinson as Belinda Blair, Daniel Rainford as Tim Allgood, Dan Fredenburgh as Garry Lejeune, Lisa Ambalavanar as Brooke Ashton and Nikhita Lesler as Poppy Norton-Taylor.
Lindsay Posner is one of the UK’s most accomplished directors of comedy. His many acclaimed West End productions include Hay Fever, Noises Off and Relatively Speaking, all of which played Bath. At the Theatre Royal, Lindsay has also previously directed She Stoops to Conquer in 2015, The Truth in 2016, God of Carnage in 2018, Stones in his Pockets in 2019, Noises Off in 2022, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Farewell Mister Haffmann in 2023. He was Associate Director of the Royal Court Theatre from 1987 to 1992. In the West End, he has also directed Death and the Maiden, Butley, Abigail’s Party, A View from the Bridge, An Ideal Husband and Uncle Vanya.
Associate director George Jibson’s recent credits include the role of assistant director for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Ustinov Studio at the start of 2023; Mrs Warren’s Profession in November 2022 and on UK tour, and Noises Off in September 2022 at the Theatre Royal Bath and on tour. He was associate director for the West End productions of Accidental Death of An Anarchist at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Noises Off at the Phoenix Theatre from January to March 2023.
Michael Frayn is a multi-award-winning playwright, novelist and journalist, whose diverse work for theatre has also seen him write Copenhagen, Donkeys’ Years, Democracy, Alphabetical Order, Benefactors, Clouds, Balmoral and Afterlife. His first film, Clockwise, starring John Cleese was released in 1986. His second film, First and Last, won an Emmy Award in 1990. He wrote Noises Off after watching, from the wings, his 1970 farce The Two of Us starring Richard Briers and Lynn Redgrave, and noting that the goings on behind the scenes were funnier than out front.
Hailed as the master of farce comedy, Michael Frayn has inspired a generation of comedies since his production of Noises Off first opened in 1982. It was later made into a film starring Michael Caine, Carol Burnett and Christopher Reeve in 1992. Now considered a classic, Frayn’s legendary play has been staged worldwide, including five productions in the West End and three on Broadway. The 40th anniversary production also returns to the West End in September 2023 playing at the Theatre Royal Haymarket with Felicity Kendal, Jonathan Coy and Alexander Hanson reprising their roles. The West End production will run concurrently with the touring production.
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