Harlequin’s Lamb and Harvester return to the stage as part of ‘Noises Off’ ensemble

Theatrical power couple Aaron Lamb and Helen Harvester met at an audition for Harlequin Productions’ 2009 “Mating Dance of the Werewolf.”

Cast as an undercover cop and the sultry werewolf he was investigating, they fell in love — with one another and with Harlequin, where he is now artistic director and she is marketing and communications director.

The pair, who played couples in such shows as 2013’s “Philadelphia Story” and 2014’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” have been busy behind the scenes since Lamb took the helm in late 2018.

They’ll share a stage again in “Noises Off,” opening Jan. 17.

“Noises,” Michael Frayn’s 1982 farce about a company of actors putting on a farce, is a critical favorite, dubbed “spectacularly funny” by the New York Times’ Ben Brantley.

“It has a track record all over the country of always being wildly successful,” Lamb told The Olympian. “It’s a bucket-list script for most actors.”

It also was on the list of director Corey McDaniel, who directed the company’s “I Ought To Be in Pictures” last winter.

“I’ve seen seven productions of this show in my lifetime,” McDaniel of Seattle told The Olympian, “and it’s just pure entertainment. It’s just pure fun. Every director and actor wants to be a part of a show where the audience is there to live for two hours in laughter.”

Working on the show has been pretty much pure fun for Harvester and Lamb, too, Harvester told The Olympian. “Aaron and I are … just actors in the rehearsal and production process,” she said. “It’s been rather relaxing.

“It’s very much an ensemble show,” she added. The cast includes Harlequin regular Jason Hawes and Lisa Viertel of Seattle, last seen at Harlequin in 2016’s “Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike.”

Harvester’s Belinda and Lamb’s Freddy aren’t romantically involved, though Belinda has a bit of a crush on Freddy, but in the show-within-the-show — a sex farce called “Nothing On” — their characters are married.

In real life, Lamb and Harvester have chosen not to put their relationship in the spotlight — they don’t even mention one another in their program bios, Harvester said — but the fact that they’re a couple was a factor in McDaniel’s choice to cast them.

“There’s a big desire from the Harlequin community to see the two of them on stage, and it’s an added bonus to get to see them on stage together,” he said. “They work very, very well together.”

When asked to take the project on, McDaniel said, he immediately asked if they’d be willing to be considered for roles. “I’ve always wanted to work with Helen and Aaron on stage,” he said. “I’m thrilled.”

And the couple, who just last month moved to Olympia full time after more than a year of keeping apartments both here and in Seattle, are excited to be working together again.

“We actually get to see each other,” Harvester said. “That’s been the best thing. We do not generally see each other during the day. We’re working together constantly but we’re almost never in the same place during the week.

“Now, we see each other four hours a night.”

‘Noises Off’

• What: Harlequin Productions presents Michael Frayn’s classic backstage farce, in which a hapless company of actors stumbles and bumbles through a touring production of a sex farce called “Nothing On.”
• When: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 17-19 and 22-25, Jan. 30-Feb 1 and Feb. 6-8, with matinees at 2 p.m. Jan. 18, 19, 24, 25 and 31 and Feb. 1, 2 and 8, and previews at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 15 and 16
• Where: State Theater, 202 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia
• Tickets: $36, $34 for seniors and military, $20 for students and youth; $20 for previews; for the Jan. 22 performance, pay what you choose
• Rush tickets: Half-price tickets are available a half-hour before curtain. New with this show, rush tickets for those ages 19 and younger are just $5; an ID is required.
• More information: 360-786-0151, harlequinproductions.org