The Play That Goes Wrong

Faith restored! It’s always a surprise and a delight to see a play not just for the second time but for the third and find it as brilliantly entertaining as the first time. The Play That Goes Wrong is such a show. The evening starts before the show starts as the stage hands bustle about on stage and off preparing for curtain up of Murder At Haversham Manor, a missing dog, a missing Duran Duran box set and a set that is far from stage worthy… it’s silly, really silly but the silliness is only just starting.

After the director addresses the audience the curtain rises on a superbly constructed litany of fast-paces falls, faux pas and fiascos, a relentless series of silliness that never seems to end. The whole is dependent on a few key elements, sharp direction, perfect timing, an amazing piece of ste design and engineering and a superb cast who are fluid in their roles. This current tour has all of these in spades.

If you haven’t seen it and want a side splitting evening of comedy theatre then book now, if you have seen it then believe me when I say see it again, it’s the perfect antidote to the blues and this brilliant cast will have you crying with laughter. Side splitting silliness at every thwarted twist and turn.

Mischief Theatre has established itself as one of the most successful British comedy companies with three shows currently on tour, and their invention of the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society has rapidly found its place in the hearts of theatre goers across the country – am-dram was never better!

Andrew Kay

Theatre Royal Brighton

15 November

[rating: 4.5]