The Noise Next Door: Chaos Control

Charming, energetic and imaginative, The Noise Next Door takes you to a world of improvisation you’ll be surprised even existed. Though still fairly unknown, this five-man group seems to be attracting a rather diverse following, from tweens to grandmothers, and everything in between. Indeed, they appear to have somewhat of a boy band thing going on, which might explain the screaming females.

The Noise Next Door hits the Fringe this year with their show Chaos Control in which they plan to start a secret service. They have a checklist which includes things as "look good in black" and other equally important superhero matters, but beyond this, there isn’t much planned. The rest comes from audience suggestions. Funny, odd, or downright disgusting, they all have to be included in the set in a convincing manner. The group succeeds at this so well that they even seem to surprise themselves at times.

It falls just short of impro-heaven though. Unfortunately, a few of the games on offer don’t quite match the group’s ambition, as they seemingly fail to juggle the audience as well as making up the script as they go. This however, occurs too rarely to cause any severe drabbing of the act, and does not stop them from showing how improvisation is the true sport of the stage-world.

With an audience spanning the ages all trying to catch their breaths between hysteric fits, it is clear that the Noise Next Door has an indisputable ability to let go, but stay in control –and take the audience with them.