Michael Frayn

Noises Off, the classic farce by the Tony Award—winning author of Copenhagen, is not one play but two: simultaneously a traditional sex farce, Nothing On, and the backstage “drama” that develops during Nothing On’s final rehearsal and tour. The two begin to interlock as the characters make their exits from Nothing On only to find themselves making entrances into the even worse nightmare going on backstage. In the end, at the disastrous final performance, the two plots can be kept separate no longer, and coalesce into a single collective nervous breakdown.

A Play in Three Acts

Noises Off

"In the peaceful Close, the only visible signs of war are the nightly blackout and a single random bombsite. To the boys, though, the whole district is riddled with secret passages, underground laboratories, and hideaways for secret agents that must be monitored. And then, with six shocking words, Keith reveals that the Germans have infiltrated his family; from that point, the espionage game takes a sinister and unintended turn. A wife's simple errands and a family's ordinary rituals, the unremarkable geography of post office and railway tracks, are no longer the objects of childish speculation but the tragic elements of adult catastrophe."--BOOK JACKET.

Spies

While foundation organizer Nikki falls for a charismatic speaker during a science retreat on a Greek island, her longtime friend, Georgie, finds her plans for a romantic weekend shattered by a temperamental scientist who has lost his senses.

A Novel

Skios

The author of The Trick of It and Spies uses his satiric wit in a comedy featuring two unlikely lovers who have wreaked chaos in the halls of the English congress. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

A Landing on the Sun

In a novel about the creative process, a series of letters reveals the relationship between a celebrated female novelist and her less-than-humble disciple. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

The Trick of It

Slapstick comedy about a group of second-rate actors rehearsing a Broadway-bound play. When they finally get their performances right, everything else starts going wrong.

Po hlavě

Set in the waning years of London's Fleet Street, this is the story of John Dyson and his colleagues in the crossword and nature-notes section of an obscure London newspaper. The ambitious young Dyson dreams wistfully of trading his dead-end job for the fame and fortune to be found in a career in television. But when he finally gets his big break - an invitation to appear on a TV program - it turns out instead to be the beginning of a series of hilarious disasters ... Regarded by many as the best novel ever written about journalists, Michael Frayn's brilliantly funny "Towards the End of the Morning" (1967) is justly celebrated as a classic in Great Britain but has been long unavailable in America. This new edition features an introduction by the author. 'The most delightful, sophisticated novel: Michael Frayn is probably England's funniest writer.' - "New York Times" 'High comedy ... an extremely well-written, witty novel.' - "Daily Telegraph" 'A gem of a comic book. It's a brilliant, fast game of poker with the author holding all the best hands.' - "Vogue" 'Still ranks with Evelyn Waugh's "Scoop" as one of the funniest novels about journalists ever written.' - "Sunday Times"

Towards the End of the Morning

'Easily the most original thing Frayn has done . . . written with elegant simplicity.' New Statesman Uncumber lives at a time in the distant future when all humanity is divided in two - the Insiders and the Outsiders. The Insiders are privileged, with their every need catered to by somatic drugs, three-dimensional holovision and a prolonged life. Uncumber lives in this luxurious world and is told that she must never go out into the dust and disease of the real world. Uncumber, however, is haunted by a restless and inquisitive spirit. When she falls in love with an Outsider, she decides to go exploring ... 'A fairy tale of the future.' Guardian

A Very Private Life

In this absurdist comedy two lovers - a playwright and his lead actress - escape to a discreet and charming Parisian hotel, conjured from a desert landscape. As the walls, door and crimson curtains of Room 322 materialise around them, a fumbling of fastenings ensues. But they soon discover they're not the only couple intent on escaping from reality. . . The Crimson Hotel has its world premiere at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, London, on 25 July 2007. The volume also features the one-act play, Audience, a delightful send-up which holds up a mirror to the outlandish behaviour and comedy inherent in every theatre audience.

The Crimson Hotel and Audience

Sweet dreams

The Tin Men

Martin Clay, a young would-be art historian, suddenly sees opening in front of him the chance of a lifetime: the opportunity to perform a great public service, and at the same time to make his professional reputation - perhaps even rather a lot of money as well. Thus he finds himself drawn step by step into a moral and intellectual labyrinth. Headlong was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize.

Headlong

In the quiet cul-de-sac where Keith and Stephen live the only immediate signs of the Second World War are the blackout at night and a single random bombsite. But the two boys start to suspect that all is not what it seems when one day Keith announces a disconcerting discovery: the Germans have infiltrated his own family. And when the secret underground world they have dreamed up emerges from the shadows they find themselves engulfed in mysteries far deeper and more painful than they had bargained for. 'Bernard Shaw couldn't do it, Henry James couldn't do it, but the ingenious English author Michael Frayn does do it: write novels and plays with equal success ... Frayn's novel excels.' John updike, New Yorker 'A beautifully accomplished, richly nostalgic novel about supposed second-world-war espionage seen through the eyes of a young boy.' Sunday Times 'Deeply satisfying . . . Frayn has written nothing better.' Independent

Op het zonovergoten Griekse eiland Skios wordt de gelauwerde wetenschapper doctor Norman Wilfred verwacht als eregast van de Fred Toppler Foundation. Hij blijkt verrassend jong en charmant te zijn - helemaal niet de intimiderende geleerde die men had verwacht. Al snel zijn alle gedistingeerde gasten die van heinde en verre zijn gekomen om hem te ontmoeten verkocht. Niet in de laatste plaats Nikki, de mooie en doortastende organisatrice. Aan de andere kant van het eiland arriveert op hetzelfde moment Nikki's oude schoolvriendin Georgie voor een heimelijke vakantie met jetsetter en notoire rokkenjager Oliver Fox. Ze heeft met hem afgesproken in een prachtige vakantievilla. Maar hij komt niet opdagen en ze blijkt door een onfortuinlijke samenloop van omstandigheden de villa te moeten delen met een pedante en kalende professor die de weg en zijn koffer kwijt is. Het enige wat hij nog heeft is zijn vreselijk belangrijke speech waar door gasten van over de hele wereld reikhalzend naar wordt uitgekeken

Examines the role of humankind in the universe, addressing such concepts as the existence of time and space, relativity, and language in terms of the question of what the universe would be like if human beings were not around to observe or interpret it.

Our Part in the Creation of a Universe

The Human Touch

There is very little evidence of the war where Keith and Stephen live. But the friends suspect the inhabitants of the Close aren't what they seem. As Keith informs his trusting friend, the district is riddled with secret passages and underground labs.

Designed to meet the requirements for students at IGCSE and A level, this accessible educational edition offers the complete text of Spies with a comprehensive study guide. Highlights of Andrew Bruff's guide include: - detailed analyses of character, setting and theme; - close examination of the novel's plot, structure and narrative techniques; - key quotations and activities both for the student working alone and in the classroom. In the quiet cul-de-sac where Keith and Stephen live the only immediate signs of the Second World War are the blackout at night and a single random bomb site. But the two boys start to suspect all is not as it seems when one day Keith announces a disconcerting discovery: the Germans have infiltrated his own family. And when the secret underground world they have dreamed up emerges from the shadows they find themselves engulfed in mysteries far deeper and more painful than they had bargained for.

Educational Edition

From the bestselling author of Headlong, a mesmerizing novel about secrecy, imagination, and a child's game turned deadly earnest The sudden trace of a disturbing, forgotten aroma compels Stephen Wheatley to return to the site of a dimly remembered but troubling childhood summer in wartime London. As he pieces together his scattered images, we are brought back to a quiet, suburan street where two boys, Keith and his sidekick-Stephen-are engaged in their own version of the war effort: spying on the neighbors, recording their movements, ferreting out their secrets. But when Keith utters six shocking words, the boys' game of espionage takes a sinister and unintended turn. A wife's simple errands and a family's ordinary rituals-once the focus of childish speculation-become the tragic elements of adult catastrophe. In gripping prose, charged with emotional intensity, Spies reaches into the moral confusion of youth to reveal a reality filled with deceptions and betrayals, where the bonds of friendship, marriage, and family are unravelled by cowardice and erotic desire. Master illusionist Michael Frayn powerfully demonstrates, yet again, that what appears to be happening in front of our eyes often turns out to be something we can't see at all.

'Michael Frayn's tremendous play is a piece of history, an intellectual thriller, a psychological investigation and a moral tribunal in full session' Sunday Times 'A profound and haunting meditation on the mysteries of human motivation' Independent 'Frayn has seized on a ral-life historical and scientific mystery. In 1941 the physicist Werner Heisenberg, who formulated the famous Uncertainty Principle about the movement of particles, and was at that time leading the Nazi's nuclear programme, went to visit his old boss and mentor, Niels Bohr, in Copenhagen. What was the purpose of his visit to Nazi-occupied Denmark? What did the two old friends say to each other, particularly bearing in mind that Bohr was both half-Jewish and a Danish patriot?... Frayn argues that just as it is impossible to be certain of the precise location of an electron, so it is impossible to be certain about the workings of the human mind... What is certain is that Frayn makes ideas zing and sing in this play' Daily Telegraph

Michael Frayn

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