Theatre Royal Bath Productions will present a 40th anniversary production of Michael Frayn's Tony-nominated farce Noises Off beginning September 22 at Theatre Royal Bath. Lindsay Posner directs.

As previously announced, the cast of the U.K. tour will be headed by Felicity Kendal (The Good Life, Hay Fever, Relatively Speaking), recently seen as Dotty Otley in the Sutton Foster-led London revival of Anything Goes. 

Kendal will be joined by Tracy-Ann Oberman (EastEnders) as Belinda Blair and Matthew Kelly (The Dresser) as Selsdon Mowbray with Alexander Hanson as Lloyd Dallas, Joseph Millson as Garry Lejeune, Sasha Frost as Brooke Ashton, Pepter Lunkhuse as Poppy Norton Taylor, Jonathan Coy as Fredrick Fellows, and Hubert Burton as Tim.

The production will subsequently play the Richmond Theatre (October 4-15), Theatre Royal Brighton (October 18-22), and Cambridge Arts Theatre (October 25-29).

In Frayn's comic conceit, the audience follows the misfortunes of a fifth-rate British troupe as it rehearses (Act One), performs (Act Two), and destroys (Act Three) a British sex farce called Nothing On. The points of view change during Noises Off, offering a front of-house rehearsal, a backstage perspective during a performance, and another view from the house, several months into the run.

The creative team also includes designer Simon Higlett, lighting designer Paul Pyant, sound designer Greg Clarke, composer Will Stuart, movement and fight director Ruth Cooper-Brown, associate director George Jibson, and casting director Ginny Schiller.

Noises Off opened in London in 1982 before arriving at Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre in December 1983 and playing 553 performances. A feature film was made of Noises Off in 1992. The comedy has been revived twice on Broadway, in 2001 and, most recently, in 2016.

Frayn won the 2000 Tony Award for his play Copenhagen.