There will be fingers firmly crossed when the curtain goes up on the latest production by the Lytton Players on Wednesday night.

The Comet: Noises Off, April 2015 production by Lytton Players, StevenageNoises Off, April 2015 production by Lytton Players, Stevenage (Image: Archant)

The Stevenage company is presenting Michael Frayn’s Noises Off at its Vardon Road base for a short run which ends on Saturday, and they will be hoping that life doesn’t imitate art.

Frayn’s popular farce, a regular live theatre favourite and also filmed with Michael Caine in a starring role, is about a shambolic theatre company and a production where everything that can go wrong does.

But the Lytton team has been hard at work under the direction of Michelle Airey, honing the performance to make sure that every awful error is deliberate, and played for laughs.

What audiences will enjoy is a frantic play within a play as we follow the cast and crew of a creaky comedy called Nothing On through a rehearsal, first night and last night.

The Comet: Noises Off, April 2015 production by Lytton Players, StevenageNoises Off, April 2015 production by Lytton Players, Stevenage (Image: Archant)

The small stage at the Lytton Theatre will be doubling up as the set for the play and the backstage area where lots of the action goes on, and in the tradition of farces there are working doors galore for exits and entrances.

Tickets are £8.50 (£6 concessions on Wednesday and Thursday) – call 01438 357407 or visit www.ticketsource.co.uk/lyttonplayers.