The NIU School of Theatre and Dance opens its production of British playwright Peter Barnes’ ‘Red Noses’Thursday night , March 26, at Huntley Middle School in DeKalb. The play, set at a time the Black Death was killing millions of people in medieval Europe, is a comedy.
In Barnes’ work, a monk in France, Father Flote, makes it his sacred duty to help the legions of people facing certain death from the bubonic plague the only way he can: by making them laugh, if only for a moment, with his troupe of red-nosed comics, or ‘floties.’
The motley group includes a blind juggler, a man who communicates solely by the ringing of bells, a stammering stand-up comic, a pair of one-legged dancers and a lustful nun. Together they face death not only from the plague, but from other people, and even the Roman Catholic Church.
Alex Gelman, director of the NIU production, says the playwright lets you know early on that historical accuracy is not the point.
“Within the first three pages, the playwright has the main character sing “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries,” which I’m pretty sure was not around in the 1300s, and so we get the idea that Peter Barnes may be less interested in anthropological authenticity and more committed to finding a greater truth.”
Gelman says it’s a mark of Barnes’ genius that he makes that search so entertaining. You wouldn’t think that a play set at the height of the Black Death would be funny. But, Gelman, says, you would be wrong. In fact, he says, it’s funny on a multitude of levels at the same time.
“It has some Marx Brothers lines in it. I don’t mean lines like theirs, I mean the actual ones. It has great Monty Python references. And at the same time, just profoundly, profoundly, profoundly funny, bitter, dark bits of text as well. One of the transgressors, while facing the Inquisition, says I’ve broken many eggs, but I’ve failed to make an omelet. That’s a pretty fabulous line.”
Gelman says along the way, Barnes skewers both the big and the small, questioning and poking fun at beliefs, institutions and individuals alike. Gelman say he and the cast have found it quite an effort to keep up with the playwright.
“I think one of our biggest challenges is to be true enough to Barnes so that the audience doesn’t get ahead of us in the storytelling. And by that I don’t mean in understanding the plot, but in terms of understanding that truth that I was talking about earlier.”
At the same time, Gelman says, ‘Red Noses’ offers a rich reward for the cast and the audience.
“A great play is a great ride. You get on at the beginning and then it just takes over, and it takes you places it, and it transports you. And this play is an absolutely masterful example of that. It really knows how to do that. And when we’re able to be true to it, it does that. And that’s pretty extraordinary.”
The NIU School of Theatre and Dance production of "Red Noses" runs March 26-29 and April 9-11 in DeKalb in the Huntley Middle School Auditorium.
