Synopsis

"This wonderful Broadway smash hit is "a farce about farce", taking the cliches of the genre and shaking them inventively through a series of Kaleidoscopic patterns. Never missing a trick, it has as its first act a pastiche of traditional farce; as its second, a contemporary variant on the formula; as its third, an elaborate undermining of it. The play opens with a touring company dress-rehearsing "Nothing On", a conventional farce. Mixing mockery and homage, Frayn heaps into this play-within-a-play a hilarious melee of stock characters and situations. Caricatures-cheery char, outraged wife and squeaky blonde-stampede in and our of doors."