Editing Noises Off (section)

==Plot==
Each of the three acts of ''Noises Off'' contains a performance of the first act of a [[play within a play]], a [[sex farce]] called ''Nothing On''. The three acts of ''Noises Off'' are each named "Act One" on the contents page of the script, though they are labelled normally in the body of the script, and the programme for ''Noises Off'' will include, provided by the author, a comprehensive programme for the Weston-super-Mare run of ''Nothing On'', including spoof advertisements (for sardines) and acknowledgments to the providers of mysterious props that do not actually appear (e.g. stethoscope, hospital trolley, and straitjacket). Nothing is seen of the rest of ''Nothing On'' except for the ending of its Act 2.

''Nothing On'' is the type of [[farce]] in which young girls run about in their underwear, old men drop their trousers, and many doors continually bang open and shut. It is set in "a delightful 16th-century [[posset]] mill",<ref>The fake programme for ''Nothing On'' provided by the script includes the nonsensical explanation: "In a posset-mill production was maintained throughout the year by allowing the milk to run into a heated curdling chamber where the flow of incoming ale or vinegar was ingeniously harnessed to operate a simple kind of theatrical thundersheet. The product was then packed in small 'yoggy pots' made from the scrota of wild yogs".</ref><ref>A [[posset]] was a medieval beverage made of curdled milk. See article on ''[[Round the Horne]]'', a 1960s radio show which made ''posset'' a humorous word in English comedy.</ref> modernised by the current owners and available to let while they are abroad; the fictional playwright is appropriately named Robin Housemonger.

Act One is set at the [[technical rehearsal]] at the (fictional) Grand Theatre in [[Weston-super-Mare]]. It is midnight, the night before the first performance and the cast are hopelessly unready. Baffled by entrances and exits, missed cues, missed lines, and bothersome props, including several plates of sardines, they drive Lloyd, their director, into a seething rage and back several times during the run.

Act Two shows a Wednesday matinée performance one month later,<ref>Multiple sources report that Act Two is set on opening night. The plot synopsis here describes the script published in 2000, in which Michael Frayn notes that the play has been rewritten at least seven times.</ref> at the Theatre Royal in [[Ashton-under-Lyne]]. (Designed by Frank Matcham in 1891, the Theatre Royal, Ashton-under-Lyne was demolished in 1963.) In this act, the play is seen from backstage, providing a view that emphasises the deteriorating relationships between the cast. Romantic rivalries, lovers' tiffs and personal quarrels lead to offstage shenanigans, onstage bedlam and the occasional attack with a fire axe.

Act Three depicts a performance near the end of the ten-week run, at the (fictional) Municipal Theatre in [[Stockton-on-Tees]]. Relationships between the cast have soured considerably, the set is breaking down and props are winding up in the wrong hands, on the floor, and in the way. The actors remain determined at all costs to cover up the mounting chaos, but it is not long before the plot has to be abandoned entirely and the more coherent characters are obliged to take a lead in [[ad-lib]]bing towards some sort of end.

Much of the comedy emerges from the subtle variations in each version as character flaws play off each other off-stage to undermine on-stage performance, with a great deal of [[slapstick]]. The contrast between players' on-stage and off-stage personalities is also a source of comic dissonance.