Noises Off

by Michael Frayn

Overview

“As finely worked as a Swiss watch and as funny as the human condition permits..the zigzag brilliance of the text as the clunky lines of the farce-within-a-farce rub against the sharp dialogue of reality” Guardian

A play-within-a-play following a touring theatre company who are rehearsing and performing a comedy called Nothing On, results in a riotous double-bill of comedic craft and dramatic skill.

Hurtling along at breakneck speed it shows the backstage antics as they stumble through the dress-rehearsal at Weston-super-Mare, then on to a disastrous matinee at Ashton-under-Lyne, followed by a total meltdown in Stockton-on-Tees.

Michael Frayn's irresistible, multi-award-winning backstage farce has been enjoyed by millions of people worldwide since it premiered in 1982 and has been hailed as one of the greatest British comedies ever written.

Winner of both Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Comedy.

This edition features a new introduction by Michael Blakemore.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350184855
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/11/2021
Series:	Modern Classics
Pages:	184
Sales rank:	1,111,663
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 0.39(d)

About the Author

Michael Frayn has written plays, novels, and screenplays, in additioin to being a journalist, documentary filmmaker, and translator of Chekhov. His thirteen plays include Copenhagen, which was awarded the Tony Award for Best Play, as well as the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards and, in the United Kingdom, the Olivier and Evening Standard awards. His novel Headlong was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His most recent novel, Spies, was published in 2002. Born in London in 1933 and educated at Cambridge, Frayn is married to the biographer and critic Claire Tomalin; they live in London.

Editorial Reviews

This extremely popular play-within-a-play by Tony Award winner Frayn has been newly revised for its Broadway revival. Because of its complexity, it is a demanding read. Acts 1 and 2 are actually the same act performed at different times in different theaters: the first presents the final night of rehearsals for Nothing's On, a sex farce, in which the director, seated in the audience, shouts direction to the actor on stage; the second is the same act but seen from backstage during a touring performance less than a month later. Act 2 is formatted in double columns, allowing the reader to follow the actor in character on stage and the same actor out of character off stage and the folly that he or she is involved with behind the scenes. Act 3 comprises the same cast performing another play, Noises On. Complex it is, and as clever and as concise as something this multileveled can be. Written by a man with a vision, this is recommended for academic and large public libraries. Elizabeth Stifter, Brooklyn, NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Spectacularly funny...a peerless backstage comedy.” —Ben Brantley, The New York Times

“First-rate.... Clever and intricately crafted.... Sublime.” –The Boston Globe

“Ingenious.... Madcap.” –The Wall Street Journal

“A triumph.... An essential hysterical fix.... Masterly.” –The New York Observer

“[A] frisky, freewheeling sex comedy about actors in a frisky, freewheeling sex comedy.” –USA Today

“A comic masterpiece.” –Daily Telegraph

“Blissful fun.” —The New Yorker

From the Publisher

Frayn's construct is based on the principle that if farce involves watching the wheels come off a well-oiled machine, then nothing could be funnier than seeing the wheels fall off a farce itself. Pure comedy gold.

The Guardian

The funniest play written in my lifetime

The New York Times Frank Rich