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Review: Noises Off

In Book #6 in my 52-books-this-year resolution (whew, I'm flying along now...), I finished a quick read, Noises Off, a play by Michael Frayn. My hometown's community theatre has chosen Noises Off as its spring show, and I've been considering auditioning.

Noises Off is hilarious. I was literally shaking with laughter reading it. I can only imagine how good it must be when staged. The first act shows a second-rate drama troupe rehearsing a comedy, Nothing On. It is the dress rehearsal, but clearly things are not going well. Act II shows the troupe again, now performing their play, only this time we see the action from backstage. We see the drama behind the performance. Finally, in Act III, we see the play yet again, from the front again. This time, the company members are so upset with each other, and so jumbled, that they begin to seriously show their dysfunction in their performance. Their lines are wrong, understudies show up on stage, along with the assigned actors. The troupe barely makes it to the curtain.

Nothing deep and profound about this play - just funny, great timing.

Comments

Jason D. Moore said…
I helped out with stage crew some for Salt City's production of it when I was in high school and Chris was helping with sound. I also saw it done by an Emerson College group in Boston and there's actually a decent film version too. It's just plain funny! And you definitely have to see it to truly appreciate it.
1:13 AM
Jim Trimble+ said…
One of the finest romps ever on the stage. We did it in college, and I've seen it numerous times since. And, yes, the film version's alright. Auditioning for that would be such a hoot.
5:57 PM
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