Review: Freshers’ Plays – Alarms and Excursions

Alarms and Excursions has no plot in the traditional sense, rather it is a collection of five farcical scenes, and this lack of unity means that, despite some fine performances and broadly confident direction, this is a mixed bag of a play.

The opening scene is the highlight of the piece: set around a dinner table, the characters find themselves surrounded by gadgets and gizmos making various noises until tensions are raised to breaking point, culminating in the characters racing around the stage and climbing on tables in a fashion reminiscent of Frayn’s Noises Off. The cast worked well together to establish the setting quickly, allowing the audience to quickly relax into the comedy of the piece. The direction of the opening scene, under the eye of Holly Fathi and Alex Campbell-Moffat, is particularly impressive, with characters using every entrance and exit to run through creating a manic scene.

Whilst the play relies on an ensemble to allow the comedy to work, Tom Giles stands out: his comedic timing and physicality mean that he is the actor that is able to produce a laugh without opening his mouth, particularly evident in the third scene where we see his finest ‘Dad Dancing’.

However, there were points at which the direction lost its bottle, and some of the scenes notably the third, set in a club with music that played so loudly neither character could hear the other, lacked the comedic impact needed to ensure they were successful. The cast here seemed not to be in control of the scene, and this lack of confidence meant the scene was stilted and fell flat with the audience. This lack of confidence, combined with the overlong nature of the scenes, meant that, whilst many of the scenes started with the audience laughing appreciatively, the laughs tended to dry up towards the end of the scenes as the audience became tired of the repetitive jokes.

Although the play was not entirely successful, it is certainly an entertaining, well-executed evening, and one that, should you desire a lighthearted break from the inevitable pressure of deadlines I would recommend.