Greetings from Slapstick Heaven! Last night I died laughing at Phoenix Theatre's incredibly funny production of Michael Frayn's Noises Off. Noises Off opened Phoenix Theatre's 2010-11 season Friday night. I can think of no better way to kick off the celebration of its 90th anniversary season.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Messrs. SNAFU and Murphy's Law decided to combine forces to produce a comedy of endless comedic errors? That's right! It would definitely be the salty comedy of Noises Off (or The Play About the Sardines!). Frayn's comic masterpiece pushes farce to its exhausting, pleasurable limits.

The play is a joyous coup de theatre, three acts, three versions, of the same horridly written British sex farce, Nothing On. The first act is the final dress rehearsal where the inept cast of performers ask too many questions and get nothing right. The second act is a performance of the play but seen from backstage where the cast's petty jealousies and failing relationships cause unexpected, laugh out loud havoc. The backstage pandemonium is played in glorious, hushed pantomime. The final act is a front stage performance where everything simply goes horribly and hilariously awry. The show is complete with slamming doors, characters falling down stairs, windows breaking and an impossible plate of sardines that continues to go missing.

To help celebrate 90 glorious years of theater in a most grand style, Actors Theatre's Producing/Artistic Director Matthew Wiener has joined forces with Phoenix Theatre to direct what is universally acknowledged as being the funniest comedy of our generation.

The Examiner asked director Matthew Wiener how he would approach this iconic comedy? His modest answer was, "We are going to try to reproduce exactly what Frayn wrote. This is not the kind of play that requires interpretation and/or concept and elaboration. It's actually challenging enough to do the play as written. We are going to focus on the things that will please audiences, the things that drive farce, ridiculous characters faced with improbable situations." Modest indeed! Wiener juggles his cast, props and double entendres with a facile farcical aplomb. Each act is deliriously funnier than the previous one.

Mr. Wiener has been blessed with a cast of amazingly talented professionals. A funnier ensemble could not be possible! The superb cast includes Leann Dearing, Cathy Dresbach, Robert Kolby Harper, Joseph Kremer, Mike Lawler, Maren Maclean, Andi Watson, Christopher M. Williams and Luke Young. They are all wacky and wonderful, falling over themselves and those sardines with comically timed genius.

Robert Andrew Kovach has designed the incredibly detailed, truly amazing British country house, seen from both front and backstage and Wiener and company use it to comic perfection. Credit must also go to Gail Wolfenden-Steib for designing the delightfully shabby-chic costumes.

Christopher M. Williams, a breathtakingly physical actor, is exasperatingly funny as Garry, a man incapable of finishing a thought. Every one of his sentences ends midway with "You know?" Cathy Dresbach proves why she has said she always finds illegal, migrating sardines in the oddest places at home (it's for you to find out how). Her Dotty is aptly named and living in a permanent, sidesplitting brain freeze. Robert Kolby Harper is the snide, arrogant director Lloyd, well, he's really more of a camp counselor, trying to encourage the best performances from his inept. insecure troupe of has-beens and second-rate adult/juvenile actors. Harper's frustrations are a pure delight. Leann Dearing is the sexy, horribly inept ingénue Brooke. Dearing's Brooke is divinely ditzy. What else can I say? Oh, yes! Maren Maclean is exquisitely funny as Belinda and the boisterous Joseph Kremer breezily, blessedly bleeds on cue. Mike Lawler's scatterbrained Selsdon is a lapsed alcoholic amusingly in search of an ever elusive bottle of booze.

The British say brilliant. The Yanks say awesome. Matthew Wiener and company have given Arizona a brilliant evening of awesome comedy. Noises Off is the best comedy you are likely to see anywhere in all of the upcoming 2010-11 season. Actually, it may well be the best comedy you are likely ever to see. What a lovely way for Phoenix Theatre to begin its most auspicious 90th anniversary season!

Phoenix Theatre's Noises Off will run through September 12.

To read Mathew Wieners interview in full, see: Matthew Wiener and the comedy of Phoenix Theatre's Noises Off.

To see what Cathy Dresbach has to say about the play: Cathy Dresbach and that missing plate of sardines in Phoenix Theatre's Noises Off.

Read about Phoenix Theatre's 2010-11 season, The 2010-11 Season at Phoenix Theatre, Part One and Next Season at Phoenix Theatre, Part Two.

Subscriptions and individual ticket sales for Noises Off and all of the Phoenix Theatre upcoming shows are available by phone at (602) 254-2151, the Box Office or ON LINE.

Phoenix Theatre 100 East McDowell Road Phoenix 85004