Stage Directions by Michael Frayn

Released to coincide with the publication of Michael Frayn's collected travel writing, this book of introductions to his plays is as wide-ranging as his theatrical projects, stretching from the farce Noises Off to the 1941 meeting between quantum physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg dramatised in Copenhagen. The pieces are scholarly and his writings on Chekhov, whose plays he has translated masterfully into English, display an impressive critical eye. Frayn points out that the play's text is but one of the elements in a production, so it is a shame that he hasn't applied his powers of observation and storytelling to give more detail about the greasepaint and mechanics that have accompanied 28 years of fine words.