Noises Off

Synopsis

Following its triumphant and universally acclaimed run at The Old Vic, Michael Frayn's multi award-winning backstage comedy Noises Off transfers to the Novello Theatre.

Described by the critics as "Achingly foot-stompingly seal-honkingly hysterical" (The Sunday Times), "Stunning" (The Observer), "Riotous" (The Guardian), "Bang-on-the-money" (The Daily Telegraph), "The ultimate comedy of theatrical chaos and confusion" (Sunday Express) and "Pure Pleasure" (The Times), this will be the first time The Old Vic Theatre Company has transferred a production to the West End.

Directed by Lindsay Posner, this it comedy stars Alice Bailey Johnson, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Jonathan Coy, Janie Dee, Robert Glenister, Jamie Glover, Celia Imrie, Karl Johnson and Paul Ready.

Winner of both Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Comedy, Noises Off celebrates its 30th anniversary on 23 February. This much loved play serves up a riotous double bill – a play within a play. Hurtling along at breakneck speed it follows the backstage antics of a touring theatre company as they stumble their way through rehearsals to a shambolic first night and a final disastrous performance.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 4 April 2012

Noises Off is back in the West End with all guns blazing, all doors slamming, and all sardines slipping: the Old Vic cast in Lindsay Posner’s high-octane production have maintained the very high standard and discipline they achieved last December.

After all the re-writes, the third act is still not as convincing or conclusive as everyone wants it to be, but the audience is so wrung dry and so exhausted with laughter they are metaphorically yanking the curtain down along with the actors, hanging from it like wet rags.

Brainy farce is a curious concept but that is what Michael Frayn has written using all the clichés of dropped trousers, mis-timed entrances, crossed wires and rogue properties to duplicate the onstage confusion with backstage mayhem in a relentlessly clever farcical echo chamber.

In the play-within-a-play, a tax exile is caught up in his own country home with an estate agent showing a young female colleague the ropes, h...

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Latest User Review

Terry Howard - 25 June 2012:

My wife & I used our theatre vouchers (30th wedding anniversary present) to see this play on Sat.23rd June(matinee) and it was just brilliant-one of the best shows we have seen in London-and so well produced and acted. The energy required of the cast is incredible and we laughed from start to finish along with other members of the audience.It was such a delight to leave at the end of the show with that "feel good factor" inside and to have been thoroughly entertained.Applause for the whole cast. Many thanks....

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