Noises Off

Noises Off is set in the world of low-rent touring theatre in which a badly penned farce is being performed by a cast of trouser-dropping ex-TV stars on the way down and scantily-clad wannabe starlets believing they're very much on the way up.

The first act focuses on the play's shambolic dress rehearsal, whilst the second is set a month later, with the same act being performed, only viewed from the increasingly calamitous backstage area, where tensions between the company are running high. The final act sees the same act performed yet again, only towards the end of the tour, with the accrued fall-outs and disasters riotously in evidence in an hilarious case of life imitating art imitating life.

This excellently written farce by Michael Frayn is widely regarded as the best of its genre, and won the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy when it premiered in 1982.