Scott Lasky Photo: Michelle Skinner, David Boyll, William Rhea, and Brandon Silberstein Photo by Kimberly Mohne Hill

Perhaps no lines better summarize the challenge and the fun potential of both the fictional director and the actual stage director of Palo Alto Players' latest opening, Michael Frayn's much-loved, oft-produced Noises Off. No matter how many times I have seen this 1982-premiering farce that explodes the boundaries of how wild and outlandish a staged comedy can go, I still find myself in tears, guffawing when yet another sardine or actor flies through the air.

A play within a play where actors' roles in one play that is being rehearsed and performed mirror and accentuate their "real life" quirks and bad sides as seen in the other play–both being performed onstage and backstage–is the proven formula for one of the best farces to hit the stage since Shakespeare. Noises Off is slapstick on steroids, with every trick in the book (trips, slips, slides and tumbles) tried at least once to command a chuckle.

Noises Off, with its seven doors opening and shutting in split-second sequences dozens of times, is either a director's dream or nightmare. For Palo Alto Players' director, Linda Piccone, it is clear very quickly that she has had the time of her life orchestrating the chaos of purposeful physical mishaps, flubbed and forgotten lines, and missed entrances and exits of both actors and props.

It is midnight before the new day's opening of Nothing On in an English seaside town. The final dress rehearsal is not going well in every respect possible and we are still only at the beginning of Act One. Dotty (Kimberly Mohne Hill) cannot remember her lines, her sardines, or where the phone goes when. Frederick (William Rhea), whose nose bleeds when he's stressed, cannot understand the playwright's logic behind why he must carry a box of groceries into the study (and refuses with much drama and flair to move an inch until he does).

Brooke (Adriana Hokk) can only recite her lines in cartoonish squeaks and squawks and move her arms like a pre-programmed Barbie doll–that is, until she slouches with full-flung body parts time and again in seemed boredom over the banister, on the steps, or on the floor. Her onstage fling is with hyper, always-close-to-losing-it Garry (Brandon Silberstein), whose frenzy only grows as the scenes of their and our plays progress.

Belinda (Michelle Skinner) is often seemingly the only sane adult in the room among this cast of eccentrics–until she definitely is not when she later becomes a tornado of rage and vengeance. And no one knows if the lovable old guy, Selsdon (David Boyll), will show up sloshed or not–or even show up.

Backstage, Poppy (Sierra Bolar) trades her initial blank, don't-bother-me countenance of Act One to one full of news and ready to burst but with no one to listen in Act Three. Tim, the all-around, jack-of-all-trades for the troupe, gets pulled into everything no one else wants to do (fix the doors, do the payroll, go get some flowers for someone's girlfriend, step into the drunk guy's role); and Braden Taylor near steals the show in this push-me, pull-me role.

Finally, the deep, tired voice of Lloyd (Kyle Dayrit) the director frequently booms from somewhere in the dark back of the theatre, with such pronouncements as "I'm starting to know what God felt like when he sat out there in the darkness creating the world ... very pleased he'd taken his Valium." But, however much his voice can sound like he's vying for a part in the next revival of The Ten Commandments, Lloyd progressively and hilariously loses any sense of stage or self-control as his own life's casting issues mount as everyone begins to discover he has more than one person in the role of his girlfriend.

Somehow, but barely, the troupe does get through Act One by dawn of opening day; a month later when we watch (in Act Two of Noises Off) the first act of Nothing On reenacted (but from the backstage perspective), things have actually gone from bad to worse (but not yet worst–That will be Act Three).

Things are not so happy among our little acting family, it seems. A lot can happen in a month–romantic triangles, secret trysts and break-ups, plots of revenge, and of course, ol' Selsdon finding the bottle of booze that everyone is desperately hiding from him. Expect many tricks and counter-tricks that involve everything from shoestrings to axes to prickly cacti–all happening backstage while the play proceeds (sort of) hidden from us, onstage.

And during the closing week on the road a couple months later–Act Three of this two-and-a-half-hour carnival ride called Noises Off–one can only hope that everyone in the Palo Alto Players acting team has plenty of medical insurance. While we are almost rolling on the floor, they are ending up on their butts slipping on sardines, falling in somersaults over clutter, plunging time and again through window panes, and tripping the light fantastic down a flight of stairs.

The Marx Brothers or Lucille Ball could have learned a lot by watching this production where slapstick is performed with a capital "S" in bold lettering. Acting is intentionally overdone; there is not even the slightest hint of subtlety by any of this talented cast of nine throughout the two-hour, thirty-minute (two intermissions) production. All adds up to an evening of hilarity.

Much of physical and visual fun is made possible by Acts One and Three's two-level, multi-door country home designed by Camryn Lang, along with Act Two's backstage design that is a labyrinth of disasters ready to happen with its multiple, rickety stairs and narrow balcony. Further laughs are insured by the plethora of props designed by Kevin Davies (are there any sardines still in local grocery stores?) and the vast array of costumes created by Katie Strawn that range from sheik to playgirl to petty robber in nature. Special kudos goes to Katie O'Bryon Champlin whose role as fight/stunts coordinator has ensured no one in the cast has yet ended up in the local emergency room.

More than ever for many people, having an opportunity to do nothing for a couple of hours but just enjoy and laugh is a needed remedy to otherwise stressful times as the administration changes occur in D.C. Palo Alto Players has a great remedy in its Noises Off to cure the inauguration blues.

Noises Off runs through February 2, 2025, at Palo Alto Players, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto CA. For tickets and information, please visit www.paplayers.org or call 650-329-0891.