Georgia Shakespeare knowingly celebrates the art of the farce with ‘Noises Off’
Shakespeare takes a holiday with the company’s precision-timed performance of a classic English farce.
At one point in Georgia Shakespeare’s Noises Off — actually, at several points — a character superglues himself to a letter and a plate of sardines and declares, “I’ve heard of getting stuck with a problem, but this is ridiculous!” Nobody ever says things like that in real life, of course, unless they’re making a point of being unfunny.
Part of playwright Michael Frayn’s cleverness with Noises Off is that he realizes how artificial and stupid characters in stage comedies can behave. The kind of perennial hit that always seems to be onstage somewhere, Noises Off earned its reputation not only for being a pitch-perfect English farce, but also a witty deconstruction of the genre.