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The device of a "play within a play" is hardly new, of course. Theater has always been meta. A Midsummer Night's Dream incorporates Pyramus and Thisbe, and Hamlet directs a loaded performance of The Mousetrap. Cyrano berates a ham actor, Montfleury. Actors love finding excuses to overact, and portraying a bad actor is terrific justification. As I watched Play On! at Olympia Little Theatre, I was reminded of a show I helped stage, Amateurs by Tom Griffin (1991), in which a community theater group frets over the reaction from a feared critic to its latest production. Most of all, I was reminded of Michael Frayn's beloved Noises Off-and if you've ever seen that show on stage or video, I promise you will be, too.

To read Christian Carvajal's full review click here.

[Olympia Little Theatre, Play On! $10-$12, 7:55 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 1:55 p.m. Sunday, through June 26, 1725 Miller Ave. NE, Olympia, 360.786.9484]