Noises Off is not one play but two
- simultaneously a traditional sex farce Nothing On & the backstage farce that develops during Nothing Ons final rehearsal & tour. The two farces begin to interlock as the characters make their exits from Nothing On only to find themselves making entrances into the even worse nightmare going on backstage & exit from that only to make their entrances back into Nothing On. In the end at the disastrous final performance in Stockton-on-Tees the two farces can be kept separate no longer & coalesce into one single collective nervous breakdown. Noises Off won both the Evening Standard & the Olivier Awards for Best Comedy when it was first produced & ran in the West End for nearly five years. Michael Frayns most recent play Copenhagen won both the Evening Standard Best Play Award in London & the Tony Best Play Award in New York.