A new edition of Michael Frayn's genre-defining backstage farce that follows a theatre company as they struggle to rehearse and perform on a national tour.
“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.” The 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.
"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 spot on parody ... achieves an almost mathematical elegance as Frayn calculates all the many and varied ways in which it can all go wrong. Noises Off is cunningly structured." - Telegraph
"A classic farce and a fiendishly ingenious homage to the form ... raucously delightful" - New York Times