Noises Off
, by Frayn, Michael- ISBN: 9780573619694 | 0573619697
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 2/10/2011
Noises Off, the classic farce by the Tony Award winning author of Copenhagen, is not one play but two: simultaneously a traditional sex farce, Nothing On, and the backstage drama that develops during Nothing On final rehearsal and tour. The two begin to interlock as the characters make their exits from Nothing's On only to find themselves making entrances into the even worse nightmare going on backstage. In the end, at the disastrous final performance, the two plots can be kept separate no longer, and coalesce into a single collective nervous breakdown.
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 laughter is indeed the best medicine, NOISES OFF is worth its weight in Cipro." - New York Daily News
"The funniest farce ever written! Never before has side-splitting taken on a meaning dangerously close to the non-metaphorically medical." - New York Post
"As side-splitting a farce as I have seen. Ever? Ever." - New York Magazine