By Daniel Buckwalter

The comedic question that pops up throughout the play Noises Off, now onstage at the Robinson Theatre at the University of Oregon, is whether every production ever produced has had strains of madness that cast members ruefully laugh at years later.

My suspicion is yes, but nothing quite as hilariously chaotic and raucous as Noises Off, a play written by Michael Frayn which premiered in 1982. At Robinson Theatre, it is directed by Elizabeth Helman, and it will provide comedic relief from everyday life for audience members in the six performances it has left through Nov. 22.

I found myself chuckling over scenes two days after the Saturday night performance. The college actors skillfully pulled the physically grueling slapstick to the point that after the night’s performance, one patron remarked that rehearsals for this play had to be exhausting. Indeed, it is a play for young people. My joints were aching watching them at work, and they didn’t miss a beat.

Noises Off is a play within a play, the inner production called Nothing On, which is directed by the character Lloyd Dallas (Mason Bruederer).

Don’t look for heavy, life-meaning dialogue. As Dallas explains to the cast, this play is “Doors and sardines. That’s what it’s all about. Doors and sardines. Getting on – getting off. Getting the sardines on – getting the sardines off. That’s farce. That’s theatre. That’s life.”

Noises Off has only one act, but it is played three times over the course of four months, starting with the dress rehearsal. It becomes obvious quickly that the ensemble assembled by the ambitious Dallas is not up to the task, and things devolve quickly.

Dallas is at the center of some of it. Is he in love with the sultry and meditation-loving actress Brooke Ashton, who can’t keep her contacts on to save her life (Ava Coffman-Luckcuck)? Or the frazzled and mousey assistant stagehand Poppy Norton-Taylor (Riley Thames), who is pregnant with Dallas’ child?

There’s Dotty Otley (Elora Leverentz) and Garry Lejeune (Peter Sheppard), who have their own turbulent romance. She’s the aging actress who spies a romantic trophy; he’s the handsome and clueless young buck. She attempts to make him jealous by flirting with the accident-prone chronic nosebleeder Frederick Fellows (Teddy Skyler). Mayhem ensues.

Let us not forget the character Belinda Blair (Anie Heffernan), who starts the play as the sane and sensible one only to be wielding an axe midway through, or the I-feel-sorry-for-this-guy character Tim Allgood (Aiden Lopez), who has to spend 48 sleepless hours before dress rehearsal building the stage (and the doors don’t work).

Finally, there’s my man Selsdon Mowbray (Gavin Blackwell), the old codger who plays the burglar in the play-within-the-play but is known to the cast as a wayward alcoholic upon whom everyone must keep an eye. When whiskey is introduced midway in the play, it’s all the cast can do to keep it out of his sight. This is Selsdon Mowbray, though. He finds it. He takes a few swigs — and I salute him from my seat.

Noises Off is fun escapism, and I would encourage everyone to see it.

Noises Off continues with 7:30 p.m. performances on Nov. 13, 14, 20, and 21, and 2 p.m. matinee performances on Nov. 15 and 22, at the Robinson Theatre in the University of Oregon’s Miller Theatre Complex at 1585 E 13th Ave. in Eugene. Information at 541-346-1000; tickets available online at ticket.uoregon.edu/noises-off/10611