Los Angeles Times
Thursday, June 27, 2002

Noise by Alex Jones
Best Bet

The fledgling Furious Theatre Company's inaugural season continues with a second offering, English playwright Alex Jones' drama "Noise." The audacious Pasadena-based group of twentysomethings scored with critics in May with its first production, the U.S. premiere of Paul Slabolepszy's savage apartheid-era drama, "Saturday Night at the Palace." "Noise," another U.S. premiere, is about teenage newlyweds and parents-to-be in an economically depressed area in England and the loss of innocence in a violent world.


Los Angeles Times
Friday, July 5, 2002

Critic’s Choice
'Noise' Is Involving Look at Cost of Economic Depression

By David C. Nichols

Echoes of John Osborne permeate "Noise," receiving its U.S. premiere by the Furious Theatre in Pasadena. Alex Jones' slashing 1997 drama of the perils of economic depression frequently suggests a latter-day "Look Back in Anger." It begins with teenage factory worker Dan (Damaso Rodriquez) bringing pregnant bride Becky (Vonessa Martin) to their new home, a shoddy Black Country government housing flat (strikingly designed by Shawn Lee).

The grimy comic atmosphere soon darkens, as blaring techno music from next door awakens the couple on their first night out and continually thereafter. An official appeal to the authorities brings their neighbor, dashing slacker Matt (James C. Leary), in search of rapprochement while Dan is at work.

This leads to harrowing developments symbolizing the lost innocence of post-Thatcher England.

Director Sara Hennessy marshals her forces with assurance. Besides Lee, the solid design roster features notable contributions from Christie Wright's lighting and Eric Pargac's sound, and the cast is estimable, managing the Birmingham dialects without sacrificing intelligibility.

Rodriguez and Martin, wisely avoiding teen mannerisms, have an easy chemistry that renders their plight doubly poignant. Leary conceals his imbalance beneath layers of roughhewn charisma, recalling the young Terrence Mann.

Jones' impressive architecture occasionally tips the sociological hat, and the intermission is questionable, halting the accelerating tension. These are quibbles, though, as the nail-biting intensity of the disturbing climax demonstrates the acute impact this haunting work achieves.



LA Weekly
Thursday, July 4, 2002

Noise
Recommended

By Sandra Ross

With a nod to Edward Bond’s Saved, Brit playwright Alex Jones has crafted a kitchen-sink drama with a techno beat. 18-year-old Dan (Dámaso Rodriguez) and his 17-year-old bride, Becky (Vonessa Martin), have just moved into a Council flat — what we Yanks call "public housing" — in England’s Black Country, an economically depressed area outside of Birmingham. Dan is eager to begin his "first proper job" as a manual laborer in a warehouse; Becky is ecstatic to be seven months pregnant. On their first night in their new digs, they’re awakened by a neighbor’s loud music. Hoping this is a one-time-only occurrence, they do nothing. But after a week of sleeplessness, Dan complains to the Council Housing authorities, and the results are chilling. Although his presence is palpable in Act 1, the raucous neighbor (an intimidating James C. Leary) doesn't appear until Act 2, when he catches the sleep-deprived Becky alone. The drama is structurally shrewd — the tension never stops escalating, and the playwright wisely avoids pat solutions. Sara Hennessy's taut direction is well-supported by Christie Wright’s imaginative lighting design and Eric Pargac’s thunderous sound. Stacie Leary’s threadbare costumes convey the characters’ underlying hopelessness, and Shawn Lee’s intentionally dismal set buttresses the overwhelming sense of desperation.



Backstage West
Wednesday, July 10, 2002

Noise
Critic’s Pick

By Dany Margolies

It's anything but noise, this remarkably delicate work about a naive teenage couple facing the cruel world. English playwright Alex Jones offers a deceptively simple tale, finely wrought, with quintessential but not cliched characters essaying a fairytale life in the dark forests of modern living. Prepared to do all the "right things," Dan and Becky, expecting a baby and newly married, move into their first home in working-class England. He's about to start a job; she'll stay home and prepare for the new arrival. And they are very much in love. But their next-door neighbor plays loud, grungy music at all hours, intruding on their little nest.

Would life be different for them had they handled the situation differently? At odds over how to approach their neighbor, they choose a path from which there is no turning back. Neighbor Matt appears at their door, at first a chummy, inquisitive young man, then a growing menace. The story has only one possible ending, but the reasons are manifold, and Jones lets us see each one, subtly but clearly. And the sophisticated, economical direction of Sara Hennessy enhances the story's feel of age-old wisdom in the face of dewy youth, while her actors offer clear-cut, gut-wrenching performances.

The decision to cast sweet-faced James C. Leary as Matt is only one of the smart choices here. Only as the play unfolds do we begin to see his deep reserves of deadly darkness. As Dan and Becky, Damaso Rodriguez and Vonessa Martin mine surprising details from their young, simple-minded characters, who have their lifetimes of learning ahead of them. Not a single moment rings false. All honestly occupy the space, putting tiny touches on moments that only a vivid imagination could create.

Sound designer Eric Pargac goes for subtlety, an interesting switch on the theme. The scene-change lighting does not go for subtlety, likewise a bold choice by designer Christie Wright. In another of Hennessy's thoughtful ideas, the actors handle the scene changes as if time were passing in the characters' lives--picking up after themselves as if leaving for work or heading for the shower--seen under kaleidoscopic, "noisy" lighting.

Costumes by Stacie Leary are simultaneously up-to-date and timeless. Props by Christina Price provide bits of youthful reminiscence. And hair and makeup by Christa McCarthy are strikingly effective. Only the unnecessary intermission mars the work. Otherwise, this Noise is golden.



KCRW.
Theatre Talk 7/18/02

By Jennie Webb

Alex Jones’ "Noise," getting its U.S. Premiere by the Furious Theatre Company, is an intimate drama exploring the fine social lines in modern life, exposing just how thin our boundaries truly are. Dan and Becky are a teenage couple in the downtrodden industrial area of England called the Black Country, moving into their very first home in a public housing project with a baby on the way. Ah, the optimism of youth. Vonessa Martin and Damaso Rodriguez are completely charming as the parents-to-be, playing house and looking with astonishment at their future, feeling they can face it together. Until they’re introduced to their neighbor by his loud, driving, techno music, played at all times of day and night. What begins as a nuisance quickly turns into a nightmare when they try to negotiate civility with the angry, unemployed Matt (a volatile James C. Leary). Exceptional performances all round serve Jones’ intelligent and illuminating script well. However, under Sara Hennessy’s careful direction, the production from this "furious" company is a bit too cautious, a bit too safe and polished. It’s still effective, but without those raw edges "Noise" never quite reaches the shocking intensity - or volume - it could. At the Armory Northwest in Pasadena, extended through August 4th.