Frayn

As modern farces go, Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off” is not only one of the funniest but may also be the most elegantly conceived.

With the precision of a geometric proof, Frayn built his farce on the back of another.

But Frayn’s work represents the gold standard of the form.

In imagining a theatrical bomb for the ages, Frayn wrote an indelible crowd-pleaser for the modern repertory.

The narrowness of the playing area makes it difficult for the actors to do more than offer a stylized approximation of the slapstick ballet that Frayn has engineered.