Matchbox Theatre

Book excerpt: Matchbox Theatre presents a sketch show in miniature: thirty short entertainments by Michael Frayn, author of Skios and Noises Off, 'the funniest farce ever written' (New York Times). Thirty snatches of people talking. To each other, to the world at large, to themselves, to no one. Heard, unheard. Overheard, half-heard. On telephones, into microphones. In a crypt, an airport, an orchestra pit. These tiny plays are offered here for performance in the smallest theatre in the world: the theatre of your own imagination. The scripts are provided. Everything else - casting, set design, ice cream sales - is up to you . . . 'Michael Frayn is the most philosophical comic writer - and the most comic philosophical writer - of our time.' Michael Arditti, Daily Mail