February 6 - March 8, 2009 Segerstrom Stage NOISES OFF by Michael Frayn directed by Warner Shook Dee and Larry Higby, Honorary Producers

"The funniest play written in my lifetime," said The New York Times critic Frank Rich when Noises Off opened to universally ecstatic reviews. It propelled Michael Frayn to international fame and started a trend that will
never end: keeping audiences in stitches the world over. Noises Off is a perfectly delightful farce about Nothing On, which is a purposefully terrible farce about sexual dalliances. This play-within-a-play is interrupted as actors come and go, usually at the wrong time and through the wrong doors, while off-stage assignations lead to on-stage chaos. From first rehearsal to final performance the delirium never ends. Bring extra oxygen!

Playwright:
Michael Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy. His novels, such as Towards the End of the Morning, Headlong and Spies, have also been critical and commercial successes, making him one of the handful of writers in the English language to succeed in both drama and prose fiction. His works often raise philosophical questions in a humorous context. Frayn's wife is Claire Tomalin, the biographer and literary journalist.

*Post-show discussion led by SCR literary staff and artists from the show.
**ASL interpreted performance for the Deaf community.