Matthew Kelly On Classic Comedy Noises Off
Exclusive Interview
When actor Matthew Kelly comes to The Rep with the hit comedy Noises Off this August he’s looking forward to one thing more than any other – listening to Brummies speak.
“I love the Birmingham accent more than anything,” he says. “I absolutely love it, and the Black Country and Wolverhampton accent too, it’s warm, it’s kind and it’s really appealing. I think that’s a lot to do with the fact I’ve always had good times in Birmingham as people have always been very kind so I associate the accent with kindness.”
Matthew has indeed graced The Rep stage many times in the past, taking on roles as diverse as Captain Hook in Peter Pan and Mr Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.
This time, alongside Liza Goddard and Simon Shepherd, Matthew is playing Selsdon Mowbray, an elderly actor who enjoys a tipple or two, in Michael Frayn’s much-loved farce about a touring theatre company.
“My character is great, he’s an old drunk so I’ve based my entire career on the part! I’m digging deep for it and I’ve done a lot of research!” laughs Matthew. “I love the part for lots of reasons. One is that he’s the oldest in the company and people are quite respectful of the elderly but also he’s somebody who is really sweet and really annoying at the same time and has absolutely no idea what’s going on. It’s my kind of part.
“But it does have its challenges – running up and down stairs and climbing in and out of windows when I’ve got two new hips for example. It’s physically quite hard.”
Photo Credit Johan Perrsson
Noises Off last year celebrated its 40th anniversary as a stalwart of theatre – both professional and amateur. So why has the play lasted so well?
“Noises Off is a genius piece of writing and Michael Frayn, who is now 89, has been with us from the start of this production and he is very supportive,” says Matthew. “He understands chaos and yet it is clever because it’s so interweaved.
“In the first act they are rehearsing the play and just being actors. In the second act you see the same thing only from backstage when they are actually on the road. And in the third act it’s the same play but from the front and on the road when the thing has completely gone to pieces. Audiences witness the progression not only of the disintegration of the play but also the disintegration of the people and their relationships.”
The story also makes use of the enduring theatrical device of the play within a play.
“A play within a play allows you to narrate certain sections which would be dull, you’re allowed to comment on the play itself and each other, and it allows for greater comedy in exploiting the foibles of actors – which is never not funny,” says Matthew. “People always love to laugh at actors.
“What’s so thrilling about good writing in theatre is that the audience feels like they’re part of it, or at least a fly on the wall watching it and that’s what I love about theatre.”
With a stage and screen career now spanning more than 50 years, Matthew certainly knows the realities of being on the road with a show.
“Touring plays is such a fantastic experience because you become a family. You become very close to people because, particularly in a play like this one, you have to trust people you don’t know very quickly,” he says.
“I think Noises Off is what we would like to be true of a tour. When you see the backstage stuff it’s kind of enlarged for comic effect but that’s how Michael Frayn came to write it in the first place. He had written a one-act play about 42 years ago and he was backstage watching the actors from the wings and he thought what was going on backstage was funnier than what was going on in his play.
“There’s usually a lot of larking around on tour although there’s not a lot of hysteria as actors are generally incredibly supportive and kind. Or maybe I’m just busy having a lovely time so I don’t notice.”
The current production premiered at Bath Theatre Royal last autumn before playing the West End earlier this year.
“The West End was packed and people just so wanted to be entertained by a brilliant play and that company were just marvellous,” says Matthew. “To see a theatre packed like that after a pandemic was wonderful.
“People must come and see the show because it’s the kind of theatre that we need. It’s joyful, it’s exciting, it’s intelligent, it’s a thrilling piece of theatre and it will have people absolutely rocking in their seats.
“I’ve watched with the audience because my first entrance is not until half-way through the first act so I sit at the back of the stalls watching them laughing. And because it has got so many different layers to it, people are laughing at so many different things at the same time and it’s very rare in a farce that you can see that. Even I still laugh at it and what it does.”