The Servant of Two Masters

The Farcical Frenzy of Noises Off: A Look at the History of a Farce

An in depth look at the style that informs Alley Theatre's Noises Off.

by

Alley Theatre

September 20, 2024

Farce is a theatre style that can be traced all the way to ancient Greece. At the time, the new style of comedy (aptly called New Comedy) was created by Greek playwright Menander. His work was so influential, that it continues reverberating through our modern understanding of comedic writing. Before the works of Menander, a large majority of comedic plays parodied political figures, public events, and mythical stories. Menander introduced characters pulled from everyday life: the jilted lover, the jealous husband, the miserly old man, the clever servant, and more. Though most of Menanderโ€™s plays were lost to history, his influence survived in the highly popular comedies of ancient Rome, which expanded on these tropes and codified them into stock characters. We still recognize many of these stock characters todayโ€”in classic plays like The Servant of Two Masters (which you may remember from the Alleyโ€™s 2022-2023 season), in more contemporary comedies like Ken Ludwigโ€™s Lend Me A Soprano (also recently seen on the Hubbard stage), and even in modern sitcoms.

The cast of Ken Ludwigโ€™s Lend Me A Soprano. Photo by Lynn Lane.

There are many ways to trace the lineage of modern farce, and in truth, thereโ€™s no single point of origin. But itโ€™s undeniable that French comedy holds perhaps the strongest influence in our modern idea of farce. By the late 19th century, French playwright Georges Feydeau cemented our idea of the modern farce, with plays like A Flea in Her Ear and The Dupe. In writing these plays, Feydeau condensed, concentrated, and heightened the everyday antics at the heart of the New Comedy, into a manic exercise of misunderstandings bordering on the absurd. Like Menanderโ€™s original plays, Feydeau often centered on romantic relationships and infidelity, resulting in a scandalous (and hilarious) new genre referred to as bedroom farce.

In a sense, Noises Off is the quintessential bedroom farce. In fact, itโ€™s almost a parody of the genre; it focuses on a group of actors performing in a fictional farce known as Nothing On!, whose offstage relationships mirror (and sometimes top) the ridiculous chaos of their onstage counterparts. In this way, Noises Off is both a farce and a commentary on farce. Itโ€™s a play that acknowledges the absurdity of the genre, but simultaneously reaffirms this absurdity by concluding that it is part of life both backstage and onstage. Though on the surface Noises Off may seem quite silly, itโ€™s undoubtedly one of the most technically complex plays in the modern canon. As in all farces, Noises Off succeeds not because of its absurdity, but because of its striking ability to remain grounded in a strong internal logic, in which the various characters all operate with their own unique sets of motivations. This is the genius of Noises Off, and why it has endured as a shining example of modern farce; as in the original New Comedy, Noises Off centers on characters that are recognizably human, thrust into an impossible situation.


Previews for Noises Off begin September 27!

La farsa es un estilo teatral que tiene sus orรญgenes en la antigua Grecia, donde surgiรณ una nueva forma de comedia, conocida como la Comedia Nueva, gracias al dramaturgo griego Menandro. Su obra fue tan influyente que sigue impactando nuestra visiรณn moderna de la comedia. Antes de รฉl, las obras cรณmicas se dedicaban a parodiar figuras polรญticas, eventos pรบblicos y mitos. Menandro cambiรณ todo eso, trayendo a escena personajes cotidianos: el amante despechado, el esposo celoso, el anciano avaro, el sirviente astuto, y mรกs. Aunque la mayorรญa de sus obras se perdieron en el tiempo, su legado viviรณ a travรฉs de las comedias de la antigua Roma, que tomaron estos arquetipos y los convirtieron en personajes estereotรญpicos. Todavรญa hoy los encontramos en obras clรกsicas como The Servant of Two Masters (que quizรกs recuerdes de la temporada 2022-2023 del Alley Theatre), en comedias contemporรกneas como Lend Me A Soprano de Ken Ludwig (tambiรฉn vista recientemente en el escenario Hubbard) y hasta en nuestras sitcoms favoritas.

Aunque hay muchas maneras de rastrear los orรญgenes de la farsa moderna, es innegable que la comedia francesa juega un papel clave. A finales del siglo XIX, Georges Feydeau, un maestro del caos escรฉnico, nos dio lo que hoy entendemos como farsa moderna con obras como A Flea in Her Ear The Dupe. Feydeau tomรณ las travesuras cotidianas de la Comedia Nueva y las llevรณ al lรญmite, creando un torbellino de malentendidos que rozaban lo ridรญculo. Como Menandro, se centrรณ en relaciones amorosas y adulterios, dando lugar a la picante โ€œfarsa de alcobaโ€, un gรฉnero que jugaba con las tensiones de lo que ocurre dentro (y fuera) de las puertas cerradas.

Noises Off es, en muchos sentidos, la farsa de alcoba definitiva. De hecho, es casi una parodia del gรฉnero: nos lleva tras el escenario con un grupo de actores que estรกn intentando montar una farsa llamada Nothing On!. Pero lo que sucede fuera del escenario es igual o mรกs caรณtico que lo que vemos sobre รฉl. Noises Off no solo es una farsa, sino un homenaje (y crรญtica) a las farsas. Aborda la absurdidad del gรฉnero de frente, pero tambiรฉn muestra que lo absurdo es inseparable de la vida misma, tanto dentro como fuera del teatro. Aunque pueda parecer una comedia ligera, Noises Off es en realidad una obra intrincadamente compleja desde el punto de vista tรฉcnico. Como en cualquier buena farsa, lo que la hace brillar no es lo ridรญculo, sino su capacidad para mantenerse firmemente anclada en una lรณgica interna precisa, con personajes que actรบan desde sus propios impulsos bien definidos. Esta es la magia de Noises Off: al igual que en la Comedia Nueva de Menandro, encontramos personajes reconociblemente humanos, enfrentรกndose a situaciones absurdamente imposibles, y eso es lo que hace que esta obra sea un clรกsico moderno.

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