Noises Off

Choose a character and examine how their offstage romances mirror and diverge from the scripted romances in Nothing On, especially as the play progresses. How does this add to the farce?

Watch the 1992 film version of Noises Off. What do the differences between the film and the original highlight to you about the setting and details of the 1982 play, especially the ways the British social and cultural context informs its comedy?

Why do you think Frayn chose to use text boxes in Act I and to present Act II mostly in two columns? How do these devices affect your reading and understanding of the text?

Read Chekhov’s The Seagull. In what ways do you think Frayn was influence by this work when writing Noises Off?

Make a close analysis of when Frayn uses Nothing On character names and when he used Noises Off actor names. How does this change as the play progresses, and why?

As the layering of the two plays becomes more entangled, do you think the onstage farce is more influenced by the events of the offstage farce, or vice versa? Explain why you think this, using examples.

The comedy of Noises Off relies on the messed-up version of Nothing On being funnier than the original script. Look in detail at how Nothing On increasingly diverges from its original, and analyze how this affects Noises Off’s critique of plays, playwrights, and actors.

How does Frayn use absence, silence, and forgetfulness to satirize the physical and verbal nature of acting? What do the different characters bring to this aspect of the play?