Noises Off

Act One

It appears to be a sunny afternoon in a beautiful and substantial country home (“16th-century posset mill, lovingly converted”), and Mrs. Clackett, a housekeeper of character, is juggling a plate of sardines and a phone call in which she explains that the owners of the house live in Spain, and that she is off work, but intends to put her feet up with a plate of sardines and watch some television.

After the call is over, however, some confusion over whether she should leave the sardines and take the phone, or leave the phone and take the sardines, causes actress Dotty Otley to break character, revealing the whole set-up to be a play rehearsal. The house is a carefully crafted set, featuring an upstairs and a number of doors, the time is actually 11pm at night during a frustrating final dress rehearsal, and the place is the Grand Theatre in Weston-super-Mare, rural England. Lloyd Dallas, director of the farce Nothing On, for which they are rehearsing, argues with Dotty about