The Play That Goes Wrong

5 July 2015

On our first night we planned to visit the theatre.  As it was a Sunday most theatres were closed, but that turned out to be serendipitous.  We chose a play called The Play That Goes Wrong. It didn't have any actors that I knew, so we probably wouldn't have chosen it if all the other theatres had been open, but I'm glad we did end up there. It was hysterically funny.

The basic premise is that a rather amateurish group of people - the Cornley Polytechnic's Drama Society - are putting on a production of The Murder at Haversham Manor.  Everything that could go wrong with the performance does go wrong. The audience are taking their seats while the stage is still being set up, parts of the sets fall down, the lead actress gets knocked unconscious so the awkward and frumpy stage manager gets shoved out on stage with a dress pulled on over her overalls and a wig on her head (with her plaits showing underneath the wig).  She has a copy of the script to read the lines of the unconscious leading lady, which she does in a very stilted (but totally hilarious) way. One disaster after another had the audience in stitches.  There was even a lighting technician asking the audience if they'd seen his missing Duran Duran CD.

They retain the pretense of being the Cornley Polytechnic's Drama Society in the show program, which is in itself an amusing read.  The slapstick-style humour of the play had me roaring with laughter. If you have a chance to see it then I recommend that you do.

Photo by Alastair Muir, Courtesy Novel Theatre

*Note: This post is late and out of sequence as I was waiting for an official photo with approval to publish.