Noises Off is a 1982 British play by Michael Frayn. The idea for the play was born in 1970, when Frayn was standing in the wings watching a performance of Chinamen, a farce that he had written for Lynn Redgrave. According to the playwright, "It was funnier from behind than in front and I thought that one day I must write a farce from behind."^[1] Frayn wrote this as a short play entitled Exits, which was performed on 10 September 1977,^[2][3] and adapted into a full-length version in 1982.^[3] Critic Frank Rich has written that "Noises Off is, was, and probably always will be the funniest play written in my lifetime."^[4] 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Romeo and Juliet by Ford Madox Brown A play, written by a playwright, or dramatist, is a form of literature, almost always consisting of dialog between characters, and intended for performance rather than reading. ... Michael Frayn (born 8 September 1933) is an English playwright and novelist. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... The Two of Us is a 1970 play by British playwright Michael Frayn. ... Look up farce in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Lynn Rachel Redgrave OBE (born 8 March 1943 in London) is an English actress born into the famous acting Redgrave family. ... September 10 is the 253rd day of the Gregorian calendar (254th in leap years). ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... Frank Rich (born June 2, 1949 in Washington, D.C.) is a columnist for The New York Times. ...

Noises Off^[5] premiered at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London, in 1982, directed by Michael Blakemore and starring Patricia Routledge, Paul Eddington, and Nicky Henson. (Cleverly included within the show's program was a facsimile of a program for Nothing On, complete with biographical notes for the fictitious cast.^[6]) It opened to universally ecstatic reviews and shortly after transferred to the West End's Savoy Theatre in The Strand, where it ran until 1987 with five successive casts. It won the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy. Lyric Theatre (sometimes Theater, the American spelling) is a common name for performing-arts houses, including: // Lyric Theatre Brisbane, Queensland Lyric Theatre, Sydney, New South Wales Lyric Theatre in Dublin Lyric Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. ... The front of Hammersmith and Fulham town hall is a mixture of styles, with a modern block bolted on to, and obscuring, what would have once been an architecturally consistent red-brick portico. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Michael Blakemore on the cover of his memoir, Arguments with England Michael Howell Blakemore, OBE, (b. ... Katherine Patricia Routledge CBE (born 17 February 1929) is a Tony Award-winning English actress who is best known to television audiences for her role of Hyacinth Bucket in the television comedy series Keeping Up Appearances. ... Paul Eddington playing Jim Hacker in Yes, Prime Minister. ... Nicholas Victor Leslie Nicky Henson (b. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ... // West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre in London, or sometimes more specifically for shows staged in the large theatres of Londons Theatreland . Along with New Yorks Broadway Theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of theatre in the... Savoy Theatre London, December 2003 The Savoy Theatre, which opened on 10 October 1881, was built by Richard DOyly Carte (1844 - 1901) on the site of the old Savoy Palace in London as a showcase for the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, which became known as the Savoy Operas... The Strand refers to: The Strand (band) Strand, Cape Town a beach town on False Bay Strand Magazine Strand, London, a street; and Strand National Historic Landmark District in Galveston, Texas. ... The Evening Standard Awards are presented annually for oustanding achievements in London Theatre. ...

On 11 December 1983, a production directed again by Michael Blakemore and starring Dorothy Loudon, Victor Garber, Brian Murray, Deborah Rush, Douglas Seale, and Amy Wright opened in New York City at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, where it ran for 553 performances. It earned Tony Award nominations for Best Play and for Blakemore, Rush, and Seale, and won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble. December 11 is the 345th day (346th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Michael Blakemore on the cover of his memoir, Arguments with England Michael Howell Blakemore, OBE, (b. ... Dorothy Loudon (September 17, 1933 - November 15, 2003) was a Broadway actress noted for her comedy and belting singing voice, which she used to deliver a wide range of musical comedy and Roaring Twenties songs. ... Victor Joseph Garber (born on March 16, 1949 in London, Ontario, Canada) is a six-time Emmy award nominated Canadian film, stage and television actor and singer. ... This article should belong in one or more categories. ... Deborah Rush (born April 10, 1954, Chatham, New Jersey) is an American actress. ... Douglas Seale provided the voice of The Sultan in the movie Aladdin. ... Amy Wright (born April 15, 1950 in Beloit, Wisconsin) is an American actress. ... Nickname: Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1625 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area  - City  468. ... The Brooks Atkinson Theater is a Broadway theatre. ... What is popularly called the Tony Award (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theater, including musical theater, primarily honoring productions on Broadway in New York. ... Created in 1955, the Drama Desk Award was created to recognize Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway shows in addition to Broadway shows. ...

Plot

Poster for the 2001 Broadway revival

In his plot for Noises Off, Frayn plays on the concept of a play within a play, in this case a parodically dreadful sex comedy entitled Nothing On—the type of play in which young girls run about in their underwear, old men drop their trousers, and many doors continually open and shut. Nothing On is set in "a delightful 16th-century posset mill^[7]" that has been converted to a modern dwelling for which renters are solicited; the fictional playwright is appropriately named Robin Housemonger. Each of the three acts of Noises Off contains a performance of the first act of Nothing On.^[8] Image File history File links NoisesOff. ... Image File history File links NoisesOff. ... A story within a story is a literary device or conceit in which one story is told during the action of another story. ... A posset is a hot milk drink, popular in the Middle Ages for its supposed medicinal properties. ...

Act One is set at the dress rehearsal, the night before opening at the (fictional^[9]) Grand Theatre in Weston-super-Mare, with the cast still fumbling with entrances and exits, missed cues, misspoken lines, and bothersome props, most notably several plates of sardines. Dress Rehearsal may refer to: Dress Rehearsal (UK TV), a BBC television special starring Eric Sykes Dress Rehearsal, a series of Canadian television specials which were a preview of the series Drop-In Dress Rehearsal, the 2004 album by singer/songwriter Carolyn Dawn Johnson Dress rehearsal, a practice of an... Weston-super-Mare is an English seaside resort town in North Somerset, population 65,000 (1991 estimate). ...

Act Two portrays a Wednesday matinee performance one month later^[10], at the (again fictional^[11]) Theatre Royal in Ashton-under-Lyne. In this act, the play is seen from backstage, providing a view that reveals the deteriorating personal relationships among the cast that have led to offstage shenanigans and onstage bedlam. Ashton-under-Lyne is a town in Greater Manchester with a population of 44,400 (2001 estimate). ...

In Act Three, we see a performance near the end of the ten-week run, at the (still fictional) Municipal Theatre in Stockton-on-Tees, when personal friction has continued to increase and everyone is bored and anxious to be done with the play. The actors attempt to cover up a series of mishaps but only compound the problems and draw attention to the bungling performance. Stockton-on-Tees is an industrial town and port on the River Tees in north-eastern England. ...

Much of the comedy emerges from the subtle variations in each version as off-stage chaos affects on-stage performance, with a great deal of slapstick. The contrast between players' on-stage and off-stage personalities is also a source of comic dissonance. Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence. ...

Later Reception

In 1992, the play was adapted for the screen by Marty Kaplan. The film, directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, John Ritter, Nicolette Sheridan, Denholm Elliott, Julie Hagerty, Mark Linn-Baker and Marilu Henner, received mixed reviews, with many critics noting it was too much of a theatrical piece to translate well to the screen.^{[citation needed]} Frank Rich, who so praised the play, wrote that the film is "one of the worst ever made."^[4] This is a list of film-related events in 1992. ... Marty Kaplan is Associate Dean for Programs and Planning of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and director of the Norman Lear Center for the study of entertainment. ... Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich (born July 30, 1939) is an American film director and writer, born in Kingston, New York. ... Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is a successful comedienne mostly on American television, thanks largely to her eponymous variety show, The Carol Burnett Show, that ran on CBS from 1967 through 1978. ... Sir Maurice Joseph Micklewhite CBE (born March 14, 1933), known professionally as Michael Caine, is a two-time Academy Award-winning British film actor. ... Christopher Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, director, producer and writer. ... John Southworth Ritter (September 17, 1948 – September 11, 2003) was an American actor best known for his role of Jack Tripper in the sitcom Threes Company. ... As Edie Britt on Desperate Housewives. ... Elliott in The Signal-Man Denholm Mitchell Elliott (May 31, 1922 – October 6, 1992) was a distinguished British actor, well known for his appearances on stage, film and television. ... Hagerty in Lost in America Julie Hagerty (born June 15, 1955) is an American stage, screen, and television actress and model. ... Mark Linn-Baker (left) as Larry with Bronson Pinchot (right) as Balki on Perfect Strangers. ... Marilu Denise Cecilia Henner, commonly known as Marilu Henner, (born April 6, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois, USA) is an American actress and producer. ...

Noises Off has become a staple of both professional theater companies and community theaters on both sides of the Atlantic. On 5 October 2000, the National Theatre in London mounted a revival, directed by Jeremy Sams and starring Patricia Hodge, Peter Egan and Aden Gillett, that ran for two years, transferring to the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End on 14 May 2001 with Lynn Redgrave and Stephen Mangan replacing Hodge and Egan respectively. Sams' production transferred to Broadway, again at the Brooks Atkinson, on 1 November 2001, with Patti LuPone, Peter Gallagher, Faith Prince, T.R. Knight and Katie Finneran. The production was nominated for a Tony and Drama Desk Award as Best Revival of a Play, and Finneran was named Best Featured Actress by both groups. Community Theatre is a very popular form of theatre in which all or most of the participants are unpaid or amateur in the most literal definition of the word. ... The Atlantic Ocean forms a component of the all-encompassing World Ocean and is directly linked to the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Southern Ocean. ... October 5 is the 278th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (279th in leap years). ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Several countries have a National Theatre. ... Jeremy Sams (born January 12, 1957 in London, England) is a British director, writer, translator, orchestrator, musical director, film composer, and lyricist. ... Patricia Hodge (born on 29 September 1946 in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England) is a British actress. ... Actor best known for playing smooth neighbour Paul Ryman in 1980s sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles. He had other starring roles in John Le Carré dramatisation A Perfect Spy and another BBC sitcom Joint Account. ... Aden Gillett (born 8 November 1958) is a British actor best known for playing the role of Jack Maddox on the popular BBC series The House of Eliott. ... The Piccadilly Theatre is situated on Denman Street in Londons West End, hidden behind Piccadilly Circus. ... // West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre in London, or sometimes more specifically for shows staged in the large theatres of Londons Theatreland . Along with New Yorks Broadway Theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of theatre in the... May 14 is the 134th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (135th in leap years). ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Lynn Rachel Redgrave OBE (born 8 March 1943 in London) is an English actress born into the famous acting Redgrave family. ... Stephen Mangan, (born 22 July 1970), is an English stage, television and film actor, best known for his role in the television series Green Wing. ... November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Patti LuPone in her Tony Award winning role as Eva Perón in the Broadway musical Evita. ... Peter Killian Gallagher (born August 19, 1955) is a Golden Globe award winning American actor. ... Faith Prince (born 5 August 1957) is an American actress. ... T. R. Knight is an American actor. ... Katie Finneran (born January 22, 1971 in Chicago, Illinois) is an Tony Award-winning American film, stage, and television actress. ...

Trivia

• Frayn has continually rewritten the play over the years. There are numerous differences between the scripts published in 1982 and 2000. Some new sequences have been added (e.g. an introduction to Act Three in which Tim, the Company Stage Manager, and Poppy, the Assistant Stage Manager, make simultaneous apologies — the former in front of the curtain, the latter over the PA — for the delay in the performance). Other sequences have been altered or cut entirely. References (such as Mrs. Clackett's to the Brents having colour TV) that tend to date the play have been eliminated or rewritten.

Notes

1. ^ B. K. Mehlman review, http://www.curtainup.com/noisesoff.html.
2. ^ Noises Off, A Play in Three Acts by Michael Frayn. Anchor Books, 2000 (ISBN 1-4000-3160-5).
3. ^ ^{a b} Author's Note in script.^[2]
4. ^ ^{a b} The Hot Seat, by Frank Rich.
5. ^ In theatrical stage directions, the term noises off specifies sounds that are meant to be heard from offstage, such as crowd noises or gunshots.
6. ^ The script^[2] includes the basis of such a program, including extracts from a parodically dry academic study entitled Eros Untrousered—Studies in the Semantics of Bedroom Farce. Illustrations and graphic design are apparently left to the production.
7. ^ A posset was a popular medieval beverage made of curdled milk, but it is uncertain what a posset mill might be. This may be a play on the phrase to mill a posset, attested in the Oxford English Dictionary as meaning to stir ingredients to make a posset.
8. ^ The three acts of Noises Off are each named "Act One" on the contents page of the script,^[2] though they are labeled normally in the body of the script. Nothing is seen of the rest of Nothing On, although the program^[5] acknowledges the source of props (stethoscope, hospital trolley, and straitjacket) that do not appear in Act One.
9. ^ The Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare included a large theatre when it opened in 1904, but the theatre was destroyed by a 1930 fire, according to http://www.grandpierwsm.co.uk/seasidehistory.html.
10. ^ Multiple sources report that Act Two is set on opening night. The plot synopsis here describes the script published in 2000^[2], in which Michael Frayn notes that the play has been rewritten at least seven times.^[3]
11. ^ However, an Ashton-under-Lyne theatre named Royal is listed in the tour of a 1908 production at http://www.lyceumtheatre.net/images/Article3.txt.

A posset is a hot milk drink, popular in the Middle Ages for its supposed medicinal properties. ... The Oxford English Dictionary print set The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), and is generally regarded as the most comprehensive and scholarly dictionary of the English language. ... Weston-super-Mare Grand Pier Weston-super-Mare Grand Pier is a pier in Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset, England. ... Weston-super-Mare is an English seaside resort town in North Somerset, population 65,000 (1991 estimate). ... Ashton-under-Lyne is a town in Greater Manchester with a population of 44,400 (2001 estimate). ...

External links

• IBDb listing for original 1983 Broadway production
• IBDb listing for 2001 Broadway revival
• Review of Broadway revival by Matthew Murray, November 1, 2001
• Noises Off at the Internet Movie Database