Called by the New York Times "The most dexterously realized comedy ever about putting on a comedy. A spectacularly funny, peerless backstage farce...a festival of delirium."
Each of the three acts of Michael Fray's Noises Off contains a performance of the first act of a play within a play. From the beginning, the cast is hopelessly unready, and baffled by entrances and exits, missed cues, missed lines, and bothersome props, including several plates of sardines.
The second time through, the play is seen from backstage, showing the deteriorating relationships between the actors, that lead to offstage shenanigans and onstage bedlam. The play lapses into disorder before the curtain falls.
In Act Three, we see a performance when personal friction has continued to increase. The actors remain determined to cover up the mounting series of mishaps, but before long, the plot has to be abandoned entirely and the more coherent characters are obliged to ad-lib towards some sort of end.
"As side-splitting a farce as I have seen. Ever? Ever." - The New York Magazine