The Play That Goes Wrong

My jaws and my chest ached from laughter as I left the Grand Theatre in Leeds this week having seen this absolutely hilarious production by the Mischief Theatre Company – or was it the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society?

For this is a play within a play. Patrick Warner, who plays Chris Drake, who plays Inspector Carter in Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society’s production of Murder at Haversham Manor and who is also the Director, Designer, Costume Designer, Prop Maker, Box Office Manager, Press & PR, Dramaturgy, Voice Coach, Dialect Coach and Fight Choreographer for the Society appears on stage to introduce the society at the beginning of the production. But even before this, the humour starts with actors who are playing the roles of Stage Managers and Lighting and Sound Operators on stage trying to “fix” items of scenery that have not been put up correctly. They even co-opt a member of the audience to come and hold a mantelpiece whilst this is fixed, but the hammer is found to be faulty and they end up having to use gaffer tape instead. And this is the first of many things that go wrong during this production.

During the play itself, the wrong props are on stage at the wrong time, pictures and other fittings on the scenery start to fall off the walls, part of the scenery collapses when one of the cast, Arthur the Gardner, knocks down a pillar holding up the upstairs study at the right hand side of the stage and for the next twenty minutes or so this starts to tilt forward at a precarious angle, even with characters still on it. The telephone fails to ring when it is supposed to, and rings when it shouldn’t, curtains at the window collapse, doors either jam or won’t keep shut when they are supposed to, actors get knocked out and are replaced by the stage manager who then drops all the scripts she is using and cannot find the cues for her lines.

I think you cannot fail to admire the ceaseless energy of the cast or the wildly caricatured yet minutely detailed comedy performances they deliver. None of the cast are well known stars, yet they are extremely professional and their timing is superb. This is slapstick comedy at its best and the actors continue to perform whilst the whole world, or certainly the majority of the scenery, is collapsing about them. To make a production that is so slick yet appearing to be totally non-slick is tremendous and hats off must go to Mark Bell the Director of the Mischief Theatre Company. How half of the mistakes happen is a mystery – I thought it would be good to see backstage how they manage to perform such magic on stage with the scenery etc. but that would probably take away much of the delight of this performance.

If you do get chance to get to The Grand later this week, I can guarantee you one of the funniest nights you will encounter in a long time. A brilliant comedy!

John Burland