All plays, wrote critic John Lahr, are dated. He meant, I assume, that all plays are inevitably products of a particular historical moment. But the best plays also transcend their time and that is palpably true of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off. This month a 40th anniversary production of the classic farce, starring Felicity Kendal, Tracy-Ann Oberman and Matthew Kelly, opens at the Theatre Royal in Bath before heading off on a short tour.
Viewed logically, Frayn’s caprice should by now have had its day. After all it is predicated on the performance of an antic farce, Nothing On, that has distinct echoes of Ben Travers, Brian Rix and Ray Cooney; and, although the last of these is buoyantly alive, no one could pretend their work is still a staple of the touring circuit. But Frayn is not simply writing a witty pastiche but also charting the progressive deterioration of his play-within-a-play. A nightmare dress-rehearsal is followed by a vision of backstage mayhem and finally a descent into public madness.
