Theatre Royal Bath Productions will present a 40th anniversary production of Michael Frayn's Tony-nominated farce Noises Off beginning September 21 at Theatre Royal Bath.
Directed by Lindsay Posner, the cast of the pre-West End U.K. tour will be headed by Felicity Kendal (The Good Life, Hay Fever, Relatively Speaking), recently seen in the Sutton Foster-led London revival of Anything Goes as Dotty Otley. Additional casting will be announced.
The production will subsequently play the Richmond Theatre (October 4-15), Theatre Royal Brighton (October 18-22), and Cambridge Arts Theatre (October 25-29).
In Frayn's comic conceit, the audience follows the misfortunes of a fifth-rate British troupe as it rehearses (Act One), performs (Act Two), and destroys (Act Three) a British sex farce called Nothing On. The points of view change during Noises Off, offering a front of-house rehearsal, a backstage perspective during a performance, and another view from the house, several months into the run.
Noises Off opened in London in 1982 before arriving at Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre in December 1983 and playing 553 performances. A feature film was made of Noises Off in 1992. The comedy has been revived twice on Broadway, in 2001 and, most recently, in 2016.
Frayn won the 2000 Tony Award for his play Copenhagen.
