From Library Journal
This extremely popular play-within-a-play by Tony Award winner Frayn has been newly revised for its Broadway revival. Because of its complexity, it is a demanding read. Acts 1 and 2 are actually the same act performed at different times in different theaters: the first presents the final night of rehearsals for Nothing's On, a sex farce, in which the director, seated in the audience, shouts direction to the actor on stage; the second is the same act but seen from backstage during a touring performance less than a month later. Act 2 is formatted in double columns, allowing the reader to follow the actor in character on stage and the same actor out of character off stage and the folly that he or she is involved with behind the scenes. Act 3 comprises the same cast performing another play, Noises On. Complex it is, and as clever and as concise as something this multileveled can be. Written by a man with a vision, this is recommended for academic and large public libraries. Elizabeth Stifter, Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
This classic farce by the Tony Award-winning author of
Copenhagen has been newly revised for the enormously successful revival, currently on Broadway starring Patti LuPone, Peter Gallagher, and Faith Prince.
Noises Off—which ran in London's West End for nearly five years when first staged—is not one play but two: simultaneously a traditional sex farce,
Nothing On, and the backstage "drama" that develops druing
Nothing On's final rehearsal and tour. The two begin to interlock as the characters make their exits from
Nothing 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 actions can be kept separate no longer, and coalesce into a single collective nervous breakdown.
