Studio Theatre 
Studio Theatre, Salisbury 
Becki Dawson 
7 July 2025
I have not seen a Studio Theatre production before, nor had I heard of Noises Off, so I was able to come into the evening completely open minded, which I really enjoy – I was not disappointed on either front!
Studio Theatre is a Salisbury based theatre group, who started in 1952. They have since grown to where they are today, with a lovely little purpose-built theatre.
Noises Off is a production that follows a theatre group from their dress rehearsal of ‘Nothing On’ right through to their final performance. It involves all the on and off-stage relationships you’d expect, plus a few extras!
Walking into the theatre, I was met with a very impressive two tier set, of the inside of a living room, where the play began. Act One revolved around the dress rehearsal, which wasn’t going terribly smoothly. The acting was so convincing at points I wasn’t sure if the cast had actually forgotten their lines or if it was part of the script – I later realised it was definitely part of the script and everyone was word perfect throughout. In this Act, you meet each of the characters and their personalities, learning their little nuances.
In Act Two, the entire set is backwards. We see all of the backstage drama, whilst the scenes that they had performed in Act One were going on behind the set – there wasn’t a moment that anyone was off stage, because off stage was still on stage! Some extremely creative props, set and movements from the Director, Lesley Bates, ensured that you never knew where to look, but every single one of the fantastic cast ensured that you never missed out on a brilliant show.
The final act, with the set back to normal, is their very last show on the tour, where vengeful relationships and exhaustion generally meant everything went wrong – I don’t think I spent more than a minute not laughing!
I would normally point out a star performer in my reviews, but I honestly could not decide because they were all so wonderful and stayed in character brilliantly throughout three very difficult Acts. However, my funniest performance award has to go to Jamie Pullen – I’m not sure many people could jump around as you had to in Act Two!
The lighting was simple but effective and sound effects were complimentary to the production. I would, however, have liked some ambience music before the show and during the intervals to set the scene and remove some of the awkward silences when no one was sure when the play was beginning or restarting.
The direction of this extremely difficult play was fantastic – I can only imagine how many hours of thought went into it before you even got a cast and set in front of you. My only criticism was the length of the intervals – it was a large set to move around, but with two similar scene changes, the intervals (particularly the second) were a little too long, meaning the play ran on for around 3 hours in total. A set time for the first, and then the second for only as long as it takes for the scene to change would have been my preference.
Lastly, I’m sorry to say that I can’t recommend anyone to go and see it, because it was sold out before the show even began! However, I would urge you to keep an eye on the Studio Theatre website for their upcoming shows – I will definitely be back.
