Word: frayne
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Michael Frayn...
Farce is the art of not keeping madness at bay. Michael Frayn has written an insanely funny play on precisely that premise. Act I of Noises Off consists of the dress rehearsal of Act I of Nothing On, a play that is about to tour the provinces. The set is a cheerfully bright living room with stairs leading up to bedrooms and a clothes closet. The house appears to be deserted. But no, Mrs. Clacket (Patricia Routledge), the housekeeper, is on the premises. Routledge is a one-woman aviary, walking, cawing and almost flying like a bird...
...falters a bit, but by then Frayn has piled up a mountain of laughs. He has also contributed a highly perceptive analysis of the fragile, precarious nature of that potent illusion known as theater. If Pirandello had ever written a farce, this would...