PacRep presents Michael Frayn’s farcical play within a play, 'Noises Off.'

Any endeavor that requires coordination between many people in space and time is a farce-in-the-making. Likewise, any person responsible for such coordination develops the traits of a dictator – a truth that applies when directing theater.

These are just some of the hilarious lessons one learns from Michael Frayn’s comic travesty Noises Off, which premiered at the Savoy Theatre in London in 1982, starring Paul Eddington and Patricia Routledge. It’s a play about the goings-on backstage during the production and performance of a play, a world usually hidden from viewers. As Frayn shared with CurtainUp in 2000, “It was funnier from behind than in front, and I thought that one day I must write a farce from behind.”

In the U.S., the play has been on Broadway, off Broadway and presented by countless community theaters and school theater programs. There was even a 1992 movie under the same title by Peter Bogdanovich.

In the story, Lloyd Dallas is a director who desperately tries to manage the cast and crew working on a play. Obstacles mount to the level of absurdity: People falling, pieces of scenery collapsing and everybody bumping into one another, physically and professionally. It’s carnage.

Noises Off is a celebration of theater as an experience much larger for those who create it than what audiences will ever know. Now, the Pacific Repertory Theatre’s crew is having fun with the script under direction of Michael Champlin and Katie O’Bryon Champlin, with veteran local actors Michael Storm as Lloyd and Julie Hughett as Dotty Otley. Michael Jacobs plays Selsdon Mowbray and Dale Tompson plays Garry Lejeune.

The story shows Act I being rehearsed, three times over. Lloyd patiently fights with Dotty, a middle-aged actress with concentration and memory problems, to make her proceed with a plate of sardines according to the script. “Put the receiver back and leave the sardines!” he says at one point.

When another clueless actor – self-absorbed Garry – appears too early on stage, Lloyd tries to maintain his composure. “Get off the fucking stage, Garry,” he says in a calm, semi-professional voice. It’s a farce, so it will only get worse (and funnier) from there.

NOISES OFF runs 7:30pm Thursdays-Saturdays; 2pm Sundays, Feb. 12-March 15. Founders Theatre at the Golden Bough Playhouse, Monte Verde and 8th, Carmel. $8-$49. (831) 622-0100, pacrep.org.