Show review: The Play That Goes Wrong.
When my friend, who is a former colleague of mine, saw the play and told me that it was hilarious I knew I had to watch it. One of the reasons was that I wanted to find out if I shared his sense of humour. I finally watched it and I could see why my friend was so eager for me to book the ticket. My first thoughts of the play was that it was definitely like no other play I had seen.
When I entered the theatre it rapidly became packed. That was a great indication of how popular the show was and how word had spread about it. After all the play won Best New Comedy at the 2015 Laurence Olivier Awards and I must say, it was well deserved. Before the show even started the crew of the play were frantically asking for the whereabouts of Winston the dog. They even asked members of the audience where the dog was but it was nowhere to be seen. A man from the audience was then roped into helping out fix the mantelpiece before the play began.The director then introduced the show with a funny monologue.
The show itself provided many different types of humour. The obvious one was slapstick which involved the actors and crew injuring themselves and being knocked unconscious. The play also had irony, mispronunciations, stating the obvious and puns. Every mistake was out in the open, whether it was with the props, the sound effects or with the script itself. There were also actors forgetting their lines, actors over-acting, actors improvising and actors pretending to display their rather poor acting skills.
The story itself was very engaging and despite the many errors and mishaps peppering the show, the audience were able to follow the tale of a 1920s murder mystery. It was called Murder at Haversham Manor and it even had its twists and turns, just like an Agatha Christie book or your average murder mystery play. My favourite character was Chris who played the Inspector and was also the director of the play. He had a lot of patience in spite of the show falling apart at the seams.
The play was made by the aptly named Mischief Theatre which was formed by a group of students and graduates from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. They have also produced several other shows including Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Lights! Camera! Improvise! and The Comedy About A Bank Robbery. The Play That Goes Wrong was written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields and premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre in 2012. It is currently at the Duchess Theatre.
I thought that the show was excellent and the performances of all involved were superb. I thought it was clever that the crew were also part of the play and provided just as much of the comedy as the actors. The play was very funny although I was not laughing continuously and my laughter was neither of a belly nor side-splitting kind. The murder mystery itself was exciting and fitted in with the other story of the team struggling to make the play a success and as calamity-free as possible. I recommend that you watch it for I'm sure that you'll enjoy it as much as I did.
When I entered the theatre it rapidly became packed. That was a great indication of how popular the show was and how word had spread about it. After all the play won Best New Comedy at the 2015 Laurence Olivier Awards and I must say, it was well deserved. Before the show even started the crew of the play were frantically asking for the whereabouts of Winston the dog. They even asked members of the audience where the dog was but it was nowhere to be seen. A man from the audience was then roped into helping out fix the mantelpiece before the play began.The director then introduced the show with a funny monologue.
The show itself provided many different types of humour. The obvious one was slapstick which involved the actors and crew injuring themselves and being knocked unconscious. The play also had irony, mispronunciations, stating the obvious and puns. Every mistake was out in the open, whether it was with the props, the sound effects or with the script itself. There were also actors forgetting their lines, actors over-acting, actors improvising and actors pretending to display their rather poor acting skills.
The story itself was very engaging and despite the many errors and mishaps peppering the show, the audience were able to follow the tale of a 1920s murder mystery. It was called Murder at Haversham Manor and it even had its twists and turns, just like an Agatha Christie book or your average murder mystery play. My favourite character was Chris who played the Inspector and was also the director of the play. He had a lot of patience in spite of the show falling apart at the seams.
The play was made by the aptly named Mischief Theatre which was formed by a group of students and graduates from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. They have also produced several other shows including Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Lights! Camera! Improvise! and The Comedy About A Bank Robbery. The Play That Goes Wrong was written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields and premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre in 2012. It is currently at the Duchess Theatre.
I thought that the show was excellent and the performances of all involved were superb. I thought it was clever that the crew were also part of the play and provided just as much of the comedy as the actors. The play was very funny although I was not laughing continuously and my laughter was neither of a belly nor side-splitting kind. The murder mystery itself was exciting and fitted in with the other story of the team struggling to make the play a success and as calamity-free as possible. I recommend that you watch it for I'm sure that you'll enjoy it as much as I did.
Glad you had a good time after reading this :)
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