Noises Off

by Michael Frayn

Overview

Farce / 5m 4f / 2 Int.Called the funniest farce ever written NOISES OFF returned to Broadway with Patti LuPone and Peter Gallagher and a manic menagerie that sent reviewers searching for new accolades as a cast of itinerant actors rehearsing a flop called NOTHING'S ON. "The most dexterously realized comedy ever about putting on a comedy. A spectacularly funny peerless backstage farce. This dizzy well-known romp is festival of delirium."- The New York Times "Bumper car brilliance...If

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780573619694
Publisher:	Concord Theatricals
Publication date:	02/10/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	182
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 5.00(h) x 0.50(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