“Noises Off” by Michael Frayn

On an impressive stage set, a human hive abuzz with insults and misunderstandings, the actors forget their lines, the director rages, the costumes fall apart, and the sardines, the axes and the bouquets of flowers are always in the wrong place at the wrong time...

Welcome backstage: to the place where every attempt at rationality backfires. Where dark instincts emerge from the shadows and roles—like zombies—devour the actors.

“That's what it's all about, doors and sardines. Getting on, getting off. Getting the sardines on, getting the sardines off. That's farce. That's—that's the theater. That’s life”, as we hear in “Noises Off” (1982) by Michael Frayn. Five years after “Room Service”, Ektoras Lygizos returns to the Onassis Stegi to direct—and play the director—in the classic British farce which sits us backstage in a theater and invites us to ponder on this: “What happens when everything goes wrong?”

A madcap production from a director who warns us that: “In this production, backstage, the quintessential space of disaster and chaos, takes over the stage, expansive and voracious...”.

Michael Frayn (b. 1933) is a British writer, novelist and essayist who is celebrated in the theatre primarily for the farce “Noises Off” (1982) and the historical dramas “Copenhagen” (1988) and “Democracy” (2003).

Frayn’s first one-act play included a nappy getting changed on-stage.

Michael Frayn has admitted that the idea for writing “Noises Off” came to him while he was watching the premiere of one of his first works from the wings. “It was funnier from behind than in front!”, he thought.

Michael Frayn started out as a journalist, where his satirical columns for the Guardian and the Observer are fondly remembered to this day. He is considered one of the most eminent English translators of Chekhov.

“Noises Off” (1982) has won the Olivier, London Evening Standard, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. In 1992, it was made into a film by Peter Bogdanovich starring Carol Burnett, Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve.

“Noises Off” was staged in Greece for the first time by the Eleftheri Skini in 1983 at the Minoas theater. The production was directed by Andreas Voutsinas and starred Mina Adamaki, Pemi Zouni, Dinos Iliopoulos, Giorgos Kimoulis, Anna Panagiotopoulou, Mirka Papakonstantinou, Tasos Perzikianidis, Stamatis Fasoulis and Mimis Chrisomalis.

“Noises Off” has been performed in Greece by both professional and amateur companies under various amusing titles.

Friday 12 October

After performance talk with Ektoras Lygizos, Clio Boboti, Eva Vlassopoulos, Brian Coon and 8 of the actors/actresses.
Moderated by Platon Mavromoustakos, Τheater specialist - Professor of Theater Studies at the University of Athens