Reviews
The Stage
Heather Neill
"This gentle satire on thesps and fast-and-furious comment on human frailty is a glorious, hilarious, celebration of ensemble theatre."
14/12/2011
Read Full Review
The Daily Telegraph
Charles Spencer
"In these dark, anxious times, Noises Off offers an infallible escape into happiness."
14/12/2011
Read Full Review
The Times
Libby Purves
"Too many joys to list ... All relish the zigzag brilliance of the text, as the clunky lines of the farce-within-a- farce rub against the sharp Frayn dialogue of reality."
14/12/2011
Read Full Review
The Guardian
Michael Billington
"The old rule says that farce only works when it punctures bourgeois respectability. Frayn gives the lie to that by creating a modern classic that shows the genre can also embrace the bohemian world of theatre itself."
14/12/2011
Read Full Review
The Observer
Kate Kellaway
"Posner's fantastic pick-me-up of a production has made me a born-again lover of farce and of Frayn's virtuoso engineering. I giggled myself silly throughout.
"
18/12/2011
Read Full Review
Time Out
Andrej Lukowski
"I'm not sure Noises Off is a play a cast and director can really impose themselves upon; simply getting it right requires a Herculean feat of precision and empathy. And in this immensely funny revival Posner and Co have emphatically nailed it. The second act, in particular, is about as good as physical comedy gets: a richly detailed tapestry of catastrophe.
"
16/12/2011
Read Full Review
The Sunday Times
David Jays
"Achingly, foot-stompingly, seal-honkingly hysterical.
"
18/12/2011
Read Full Review
The Independent
Paul Taylor
"You feel throughout that this revival is a real labour of love. It brings out the zestful warmth in the piece, which is at once a demolition of dire farce and joyous celebration of it, and broadly affectionate in its satire of the luvvies who are, outrageously, just as much stereotypes as the characters they play. "
14/12/2011
Read Full Review
The Daily Mail
Quentin Letts
"Are there perhaps moments when watching this classic modern farce is like listening to an expert playing the harpsichord? You admire the artistry. You wonder at the precision of the work. Yet it leaves you just a little cold. "
14/12/2011
Read Full Review
The Daily Express
Julie Carpenter
"Written in 1982, it does seem a touch outdated but when the show gets into full swing we hardly care. The skilful structure of the piece means the performance builds and builds and you wonder how all the cast ... manage this feat of immaculate comic timing.
"
16/12/2011
Read Full Review
The Financial Times
Ian Shuttleworh
"The chap sitting behind me on press night was the most deafening audience laugher I have ever encountered, but you really can’t begrudge someone a good old guffaw at stuff like this.
"
14/12/2011
Read Full Review
The Evening Standard
Henry Hitching
"There are slamming doors and disobedient trousers, as well as a burgeoning group of burglars who are a symbol of the pleasure Frayn takes in doubling and trebling his characters' misadventures. The production does justice to the writing's technical intricacy. It is entertaining and painful - a summation of all that farce can do."
14/12/2011
Read Full Review