Steppenwolf Theatre isn’t exactly known for comedies. Since the mid-1970s, the Chicago-based ensemble has built an international reputation for intense family dramas such as August: Osage County by Tracy Letts, which won five Tony Awards in 2008, and the Broadway-bound Purpose, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. So, it was an unexpected choice when artistic directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis chose to open the 2024–25 season with Noises Off, Michael Frayn’s 1982 farce about the backstage mishaps of a touring theatre company. Francis, who is also a member of the cast, describes it as “the quintessential ensemble piece” that “truly requires excellent teamwork, endurance, precision, and joy.” In short: the perfect Steppenwolf show.
Tony-winner, Anna D. Shapiro, who served as the company’s artistic director from 2015 to 2021 and remains an ensemble member, has wanted to direct Noises Off for many years and this production marks her return as a director. Following its Chicago run, which has just been extended to November 3, the show transfers to the Geffen Playhouse, the co-producing company, for a winter run in Los Angeles.
In Frayn’s three-act comedy, a British company rehearses a play within a play—a bawdy farce called Nothing On—in preparation for a tour across England. After witnessing a chaotic dress rehearsal in the first act, the audience views the play from backstage in the second and third acts, which take place later in the tour as the ensemble unravels. Love triangles, offstage quarrels, and onstage accidents pile up, the slapstick reaching a frenzied pace.
After running for five years in London’s West End and for more than two years on Broadway in the 1980s, Noises Off has been revived several times in both cities and remains a favorite among professional and amateur theatres across the U.S., UK, and Europe. In 1992, Michael Caine and Carol Burnett starred in the film adaptation. Frayn described the perennially popular play as his “life support system” in a 2023 interview with The Guardian. “It’s my Mousetrap.”
“Michael Frayn is an absolute master,” raves Shapiro. “What he understands about playwriting, what he understands about acting, what he understands about an audience, can’t be underestimated. It’s no surprise to me that the sun does not set on this play.”
In Shapiro’s rehearsal room, the intergenerational cast of actors from Chicago and Los Angeles includes longtime Steppenwolf members Francis Guinan, Ora Jones, and James Vincent Meredith. “I feel like this group has become an ensemble very quickly,” says Shapiro. “They get what each other’s strengths are. They lean into those strengths, and they are learning from each other every day.”
This highly physical farce requires intricate blocking and impressive stamina. “The second act of Noises Off, which has very little language, is 60 pages long, and yet when it’s run, it’s 25 minutes,” notes Shapiro. “A page of a play is usually a minute and a half to two minutes. There are certain pages in Act 2 of this play that have more blocking on them than entire plays I have done on Broadway.”
To describe what it’s like having Shapiro at the helm, Francis uses language that evokes a conductor leading an orchestra: “She’s doing this really beautiful thing, understanding exactly what needs to happen in the script and helping us feel like we can still be ourselves and master what feels like a symphony with confidence and grace and joy.”
Not every farce ages well, but the enduring influence of Noises Off can be seen in the popularity of more recent backstage comedies, such as The Play That Goes Wrong. For Francis, it’s the humanity of the characters in Noises Off that continues to resonate. “My favorite thing about the play is that it’s about people who deeply care, who are genuinely willing to try, who fall down and just keep getting back up. And I love that.”
“It’s not just a farce, it’s a love letter,” says Shapiro. “It’s a love letter to audiences. It’s a love letter to people who love theatre.”
Ora Jones, Audrey Francis and James Vincent Meredith in Steppenwolf Theatre’s Noises Off
Andrew Leeds, Max Stewart, Francis Guinan, Rick Holmes, Audrey Francis, James Vincent Meredith and Ora Jones in Steppenwolf Theatre’s Noises Off
Andrew Leeds, Ora Jones, and Francis Guinan in Steppenwolf Theatre’s Noises Off
Ora Jones, Francis Guinan, Rick Holmes, Audrey Francis, Amanda Fink, and Vaneh Assadourian in Steppenwolf Theatre’s Noises Off
Amanda Fink, James Vincent Meredith, Francis Guinan, and Audrey Francis in Steppenwolf Theatre’s in Noises Off
Rick Holmes, Ora Jones, Audrey Francis, and James Vincent Meredith in Steppenwolf Theatre’s Noises Off
Ora Jones, James Vincent Meredith, and Audrey Francis in Steppenwolf Theatre’s in Noises Off
Audrey Francis, Ora Jones, Francis Guinan, and Rick Holmes in Noises Off
Audrey Francis, Andrew Leeds, James Vincent Meredith, and Ora Jones in Steppenwolf Theatre’s in Noises Off
James Vincent Meredith, Rick Holmes, Amanda Fink, and Audrey Francis in Noises Off
Company of Steppenwolf Theatre’s Noises Off
Amanda Fink and Audrey Francis in Steppenwolf Theatre’s Noises Off
Company of Steppenwolf Theatre’s Noises Off
Rick Holmes, Francis Guinan, and Vaneh Assadourian in Steppenwolf Theatre’s Noises Off
James Vincent Meredith, Max Stewart, Ora Jones, Vaneh Assadourian, and Audrey Francis in Steppenwolf Theatre’s in Noises Off
James Vincent Meredith, Ora Jones, and Vaneh Assadourian in Steppenwolf Theatre’s Noises Off
Audrey Francis and James Vincent Meredith in Noises Off
