This post was updated Feb. 19 at 8:14 p.m.

Much unlike its title, audiences of “Noises Off” will find themselves laughing from beginning to end.

Playing at the Geffen Playhouse through March 9, the cast of “Noises Off” will slap, kiss and drink itself into oblivion, bringing a now-classically farcical time for theatergoers to the heart of Westwood. Helmed by Tony Award-winning director Anna D. Shapiro, the Geffen co-production with Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company illuminates Michael Frayn’s beloved 1982 meta-farce, which follows the interpersonal dynamics of a play-within-a-play’s dysfunctional cast. Bolstered by its shrewd set design and ferocious cast, Shapiro and her crew breathe new life into a Broadway classic for Western audiences.

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The first act follows the cast of fictional play “Nothing On” rehearsing on the eve of its first performance, chronicling the individual struggles of each cast member as they attempt to work through not only their missed cues but the conflicts between the characters that gradually simmer to the surface. The act is intentionally quite unassuming: After a painful attempt at a scene by the terrific Ora Jones’ Dotty Otley involving a later-recurring plate of sardines, the play’s sardonic director Lloyd Dallas – played by a comparably sharp Rick Holmes – begins his scathing critiques, which comprise most of the act’s comedic moments.

As the act progresses and the cast introduces itself, each of the characters’ skeletons emerge from the closet, as does the prowess of the “Noises Off” cast. A hilarious David Lind’s Garry endeavors to make Dotty jealous, UCLA alumnus Vaneh Assadourian’s stage manager Poppy fails to hide a pregnancy and the entire ensemble makes dogged attempts to keep the cast drunkard – Francis Guinan’s Selsdon – from ruining its already ill-fated rehearsal. This artistic competence effectively compensates for a noticeable lack in lighting and music choices throughout the act – a grievance that is later written off to be of no matter.

After the first of two intermissions, the audience returns for the second act to a completely different setting – the stage has now rotated 180 degrees to reveal the backstage of the set, providing a literal glimpse at the behind-the-scenes antics of the cast’s matinee performance and subsequently into their deteriorating relationships. The audience soon finds that the unassuming comedy of the first act was a venomous bite, acutely spiking throughout this act and bolstered yet again by the cast’s razor-sharp performances.

As each of the characters duck in and out of the set’s six doors across two stories, the show devolves into shocking slapstick chaos, relying on physical acting and impressive blocking rather than dialogue: revenge schemes that entail a bottle of whiskey, an ax, a sheikh costume and, of course, trays of sardines. Furthermore, set designer Todd Rosenthal’s set of the backstage makes for a supremely simple yet clever way of polishing a typically nondiegetic element into the act – a specific demand of Frayn’s script that was evidently fulfilled.

As the set rotates again and the cast gives a chaotic performance of “Nothing On,” they struggle to execute their schemes while containing the collective chaos that ensues onstage. Much like the second act, the final act consists of outrageous slapstick moments, but this time through increasingly frenetic dialogue and ad-libbing, eventually crescendoing into mesmerizing disaster.

It is in this stretch of scripted improvisation where the cast has some of its most memorable moments: Garry falls down the stairs and collapses, Dotty repeatedly sits on sardines and do-gooder Belinda Blair (Audrey Francis) eventually coaxes Garry’s co-lead Brooke (Amanda Fink) out of her dressing room. By the end of the third act, it becomes evident that casting consultants JC Clementz and Phyllis Schuringa’s handiwork has paid off – the “Noises Off” ensemble is the beating heart of its excruciatingly funny two-and-a-half-hour runtime.

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Unsurprisingly, the collaboration of the renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Company and the Geffen Playhouse has elevated the already hysterical script of Frayn into something that both transcends and pays homage to it, as all good productions should – incorporating Frayn’s recent rewrites while polishing the production’s traditional set and costuming choices.

Despite the shocking twists and turns of “Noises Off,” there is one thing audiences are guaranteed from the start: a riotously good time.