'Noises Off' actors get most things right, even as the characters they play in the farce don't

There's a point in the second act of 1st Stage's current production -- Michael Frayn's beloved farce "Noises Off" -- when a character inadvertently aligns with a cactus. The moment crowns a sequence of intricate mayhem set in the backstage area of an English playhouse: Frayn's personages, members of a third-rate touring theater troupe, have been hashing their way through a performance while airing their own festering personal intrigues behind the set and in the wings. Amid the commotion, an egoi...