It is not often you sit in a theatre and hear the entire audience rocking with laughter.
But that is exactly what happened throughout Michael Frayn's Noises Off which played the Theatre Royal, Brighton last week.
This masterpiece of comedy is a play within a play. The cast of Noises Off are performing another play Nothing On and Act
One is the technical rehearsal.
Act Two is the same play, now on tour, six weeks after the opening night but the audience see the action from backstage.
The final act returns to the audience's perspective three months after the play opened.
Relationships within the cast have deteriorated and the entire production has subsided into chaos.
Noises Off has a superb cast and Colin Baker was hilarious as ageing actor Selsdon Mowbray who prefers the bottle to his role as a bumbling burglar. Maggie Steed is a gem as Dottie Otley who is obsessed with the plates of sardines she has to produce.
Ambassador Theatre Group's production is on a national tour and how lucky for Brighton theatregoers they decided to stop off at their own Theatre Royal.
Not many plays make you laugh from beginning to end but this is certainly one of them. Well written, well acted, well directed with a superb set. What more can you want.
Amanda Wilkins
Noises Off, Theatre Royal Brighton, September 9 - 13.
The full article contains 232 words and appears in Sussex Express Series newspaper.
