Noises Off

Michael Frayn explains that the idea for this play came to him whilst he was observing a performance of another of his plays from the wings and he realised that the activities taking place back stage could be as comedic as those being presented to the audience by the actors on stage. Premiered in 1982 and subjected to a number of subsequent rewrites to avoid it becoming dated, ‘Noises Off’ has become a popular choice for am-drams to perform. The format he adopted was the presentation of the first act of a play - three times. On the first occasion we see the players during the dress rehearsal with the usual failings of fluffed lines, missed cues, etc. The second presentation of Act 1 features the back stage activities during a matinee performance one month later. The third presentation of Act 1 takes place on stage 10 weeks into the tour when the quality of the performance is destroyed by soured romances and misunderstandings which cause relationships to fall apart and subsequent chaos ensues. This was an exceedingly accomplished production under the very capable direction of Liz Worsley with all the cast delivering superlative performances. The activities of the efficient stage crew ensured that the frenetic pace, so essential to this play, was maintained to the very end. This was brilliant entertainment – well done Playgoers!

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