Movies - Noises Off

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	Movies - Noises Off

Noises Off is

a stage play by British author Michael Frayn which premièred at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London, in 1982 (ISBN 1400031605); and

a 1992 comedy film directed by Peter Bogdanovich based on Frayn's play, with a screenplay by Marty Kaplan.

The cast of the film:

Carol Burnett
- Dotty Otley / Mrs Clackett
Michael Caine
- Lloyd Fellowes
Denholm Elliott
- Selsdon Mowbray / The Burglar
Christopher Reeve
- Frederick Dallas / Philip Brent
John Ritter
- Garry Lejeune / Roger Tramplemain
Marilu Henner
- Belinda Blair / Flavia Brent
Nicollette Sheridan
- Brooke Ashton / Vicki
Julie Hagerty
- Poppy Taylor
Mark Linn-Baker
- Tim Allgood

In Noises Off, Frayn makes use of the old tradition of the play within a play, specifically the variant in which a repertory theatre company is touring around performing a play, which is then also shown on stage (cf. Kiss Me, Kate
). Under the direction of Lloyd Dallas, the company perform a classic farce entitled Nothing On. (There is even a facsimile of the entire theatre programme included in the playscript of Noises Off.) At the same time the actors and actresses have to cope with their own personal problems such as aging, falling in and out of love, jealousy, and professional envy.

Noises Off has had successful runs on both sides of the Atlantic and also in German-speaking countries. While playwrights such as Ray Cooney are keeping up the tradition of the English farce, Frayn's play is a deliberate send-up of that tradition. (Noises Off is partly inspired by Frayn's experiences with his earlier play Chinamen, which was straight farce; he once commented that during a performance of that play, the chaos behind the scenes was often more entertaining than the action on-stage.)

Trivia

The last names of Lloyd Dallas and Frederick Fellowes from the play version were switched in the movie version.

The play which the film is based on is done in three acts; act one is the final dress rehearsal; act two is the matinee performance; act three is the evening performance. The bridge scenes, with Caine's voiceover narration, including the opening scene where he leaves the theatre and the ending scene where he returns, were written for the film and do not appear in the play. In the play, the last line is the frantic call for "Curtain!"

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Noises Off ]

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