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When the San José Repertory Theatre opens its new season with the comedy Noises Off on Sept. 12, the company will be giving itself one tough act to follow. No mere trifling amusement, Noises Off is often claimed by audiences and critics alike to be "the funniest play ever written." (And theater critics aren't generally known for a sense of humor.)
But there are plenty of laughs to be found in the theater, as playwright Michael Frayn demonstrates with this bedroom farce about the drama behind the scenes of a British theater troupe's doomed production of a bedroom farce.
There's much door-slamming, bed-hopping and backstabbing as Frayn takes the audience from the troupe's dress rehearsal to the final performance, and we watch the castmates' infighting and interpersonal woes go from backstage to center stage.
The cast of this funniest play about the worst possible production includes stage and television actress Jane Carr (see related story on the last page of this section) and Bay Area actor Dan Hiatt, well-known to Rep audiences from A Flea in Her Ear and other shows. Noises Off is directed by Michael Seyd, whose many credits include an extremely successful San Francisco/North Bay production of "the funniest play ever written."
Noises Off runs Sept. 12Oct. 5 (previews Sept. 67 and Sept. 1011) at the San José Repertory Theatre, 101 Paseo de San Antonio, San Jose. Tickets are $18$25. For more information, call 408.367.7255 or see www.sjrep.com.
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