Noises Off

I think there’s something deliciously sneaky about reading a script. You see the actors fussing about on the stage when you watch a play, but you have access to the actors’ code book — the stage directions — when you read a play. It’s almost like you’re privvy to their secrets. It opens up a whole new world.

This month I read a play written in the 1980s called Noises Off by Michael Frayn. I saw the forgetable film version long ago. The movie’s talented cast gave robotic performances fussing about contrived technicalities that just weren’t funny on screen. The written script, however, reveals all those detailed goings-on. It was a great read. The fact that the story takes place on- and off- stage at a play made reading it show more that much more enjoyable.

Act One is set the night before an opening matinee. The actors stumble through their slapstick rehearsal so miserably that the director (and you the reader) has little confidence they will be able to ready for a live audience. Characters are constantly coming and going through the many stage doors. Actors miss their cues, flub lines, and mishandle props. It’s a mess.

Then comes the wild second act. The set is reversed and you (the reader) find yourself backstage at the premiere. You quickly discover that there’s much more chaos behind the scenes. Everyone is upset (or dallying) with someone, props are juggled, and little dramas play out. Flowers, whiskey, sardines, and an ax get passed around every time one actor exits to the stage and another re-enters backstage. Saboteurs trip up their rivals and victims seek revenge.

Eventually, all this silent chaos in the wings leaks out to the stage and the production just barely scrapes to a conclusion. The book is challenging to read at this point since you are actually going back and forth between two simultaneous, intersecting plays at once: one onstage and one backstage. But if you can follow it, it’s absolutely hilarious. Keeping up with the stage directions — the code book a theater audience never sees — is what makes this such a funny play to read.

When you think the play within the play can’t get any worse, it does. Act Three drops you back out in the audience watching the evening performance. Having read the play twice already (in Acts One and Two), you know the lines, the intended prop handling, and all the entrances and exits. You’re such an expert on what should happen, in fact, that you recognize the gaffes, anticipate the consequences of misplaced props, and see the entire production go down the tubes in a sputtering, misfiring, pathetic glory. If you’ve ever read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, a kid’s chapter book about a play, Noises Off might be considered the even wilder version for adults.

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I've seen this three times. It's the most clever play, hysterically funny, really laugh-until-it-hurts-funny, but it has to be done by somebody top-notch. Happily, I've only bombed out once.

Michael Frayn suffers from being an all-rounder. I once read some advice he gave to aspiring writers. Find one thing to say and keep saying it, that's what people want out of an author. All-rounders are never respected. Luckily for most writers, they do only have about one thing to say.

Frayn couldn't be further from that. I find it quite astonishing that Noises Off and Copenhagen could both come from the same pen. It may hurt his pocket, but honestly, Michael Frayn, there are grateful readers out there. I hope that is some compensation.

I've seen this three times. It's the most clever play, hysterically funny, really laugh-until-it-hurts-funny, but it has to be done by somebody top-notch. Happily, I've only bombed out once.

Michael Frayn suffers from being an all-rounder. I once read some advice he gave to aspiring writers. Find one thing to say and keep saying it, that's what people want out of an author. All-rounders are never respected. Luckily for most writers, they do only have about one thing to say.

Frayn couldn't be further from that. I find it quite astonishing that Noises Off and Copenhagen could both come from the same pen. It may hurt his pocket, but honestly, Michael Frayn, there are grateful readers out there. I hope that is some compensation.

I've seen this three times. It's the most clever play, hysterically funny, really laugh-until-it-hurts-funny, but it has to be done by somebody top-notch. Happily, I've only bombed out once.

Michael Frayn suffers from being an all-rounder. I once read some advice he gave to aspiring writers. Find one thing to say and keep saying it, that's what people want out of an author. All-rounders are never respected. Luckily for most writers, they do only have about one thing to say.

Frayn couldn't be further from that. I find it quite astonishing that Noises Off and Copenhagen could both come from the same pen. It may hurt his pocket, but honestly, Michael Frayn, there are grateful readers out there. I hope that is some compensation.

I'm never sure whether it's better to see a play before reading it, or vice versa, but I think in this case, either would be fine. I have seen this play more than once, and am pumped that it is being done again nearby, so I will see it again in a week. But it did add (or clarify) a few things by reading, so that I was able to sort out the dynamics of the deterioration that occurs as a theatre troupe moves from dress rehearsal to the end of a mishap-ridden tour, during which various relationships are made, broken, and remade, with all the mayhem that occurs backstage on full view for the audience/reader to enjoy. Truly a fine tour de force.

"Noises Off" is a brilliant farce written by the award-winning playwright Michael Frayn, who is perhaps best known for his drama "Copenhagen," which dramatizes the 1941 meeting between Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. First staged in the 1980s, "Noises Off" has appeared on Broadway twice and is frequently performed by local theaters.

A play in three acts, "Noises Off" is both a sendup of the classic English farce and a backstage comedy. The first act consists of a technical rehearsal for the play "Nothing On," which is preparing for a British tour. The second act takes place backstage during a performance of "Nothing On." The third act occurs during the disastrous final performance.

The "play within a play" is a mixture of mistaken show more identities, rapid entrances and exits of various characters through a variety of on stage doors, and ridiculous subplot involving the tray of sardines. In itself, it is occasionally funny, but mostly serves as the elaborate set up for Frayn's true farce involving the director, actors, and crew. These characters are a mix of traits: alcoholism, bruised egos, pseudo-psychology, and quirky artists. The multiple overlapping romances heighten the conflict and misunderstandings.

Although funniest when seen on stage, the zaniness and madcap quality comes through even reading the printed script. Too often, modern plays and movies are described as "classic," even when they are merely good. However, "Noises Off" fully deserves to be described as a classic farce. show less

A comical and Brilliant play about a play. If you say the movie Inseption and didnt understand then Noises Off may not be the Book for you. I only wish I could see this show on broadway becuase it is a truely humorous and entertaining story.