In my opinion, a very persistent motif in Noises Off! is the use of pet names, or
in the case of act three the lack of pet names. In the first act of the play all the actors and Lloyd use
several different pet names, such as ‘darling’ and ‘love’ and ‘honey’, to talk
to each other and they use them almost constantly, but in the second act the
use of pet names has dwindled and by the third act they don’t use any pet names
at all.
I think the tag line for this play is “Down comes the curtain.”
I think the unifying principal of this play is ‘the unraveling of the curtain’
and I think the falling down of the curtain at the end of this play not only
fits but it describes the whole play, in that the play is unraveling throw out
the whole show and in the end it just falls apart and hits the ground. There is
nothing more a play can do after the curtain falls because it generally means
the play is over. This play with in a play is over when the curtain falls down.
I very much agree with your idea of ‘unraveling’ as a unifying principle. It is apparent throughout the text that the characters and the story are quickly ‘unraveling.’ As the character’s personal lives deteriorate around them so do their show and the play. Even though some of the characters attempt to restore order to the world of the play it has ‘unraveled’ to an extent in which it appears unsalvageable.
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