Review: The Play That Goes Wrong, Everyman Theatre

Mischief's multi award-winning international smash hit comedy has returned to the Everyman Theatre, as part of their special re-opening season until the 1st August. We invited local theatre enthusiast, Danielle Ellis, to check it out on behalf of Visit Cheltenham.

Please note - You'll have to be quick if you want to experience this comedy for yourself folks, daily performances taking place until next Sunday, 1st August.

What a wonderful way to get back to the theatre! The Play that Goes Wrong at the Everyman Theatre was such an enjoyable evening. The audience gasped, laughed and tittered from start to finish. This was what we’d been waiting for - the chance to laugh out loud and interact, enjoy being part of an audience again. The audience was diverse from families with young children to the young at heart. My husband and I loved it.

Photographer credit featuring previous UK Tour cast- Robert Day

Imagine all the things that could possibly go wrong when putting on a play and they were there. But there were many unexpected happenings too that made us gasp and cry out loud. In many comic turns, the cast just ignored what was going on around them and just kept going.

Before the curtain went up, we were already in sympathy with the crew back stage trying to make the best of props that didn’t work. The scene was a country house with an upstairs room. The audience was asked to check whether Winston the dog (a crucial member of the cast) happened to be sitting beneath one of our seats.  Women in the front row were asked whether they had a hammer in their bag as the one the crew were using had broken. The first of many mishaps.

We met the “Director” (pronounced Direct TOR of course) of the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, the amateur company performing the play. He regaled us with details of previous productions by company which suffered from a reduced cast “Cat” and Roald Dahl’s “James” - the peach went rotten. It was his first production in charge, what could possibly go wrong?

The story was a classic murder mystery. The characters included two monied brothers, a flapper and her brother, a Jeeves like character and a police inspector. The story is slight - who murdered Charles Haversham? At times the audience became part of the play helping the hapless Tech guy and the Inspector to find a missing item, and the Director berated the audience for not understanding just how hard it is to put on a performance. An understudy added much hilarity and do look out for the mispronunciations.

The actor who had previously been playing Cedric one of the brothers came back as the Gardener (using exactly the same voice) on to channel his inner Tweedie so well that we believed that Winston the dog actually was on the stage.

A fast and furious finale saw mayhem abound with all the characters hamming it up to the last moment. We were exhausted by the pace of the showand what must they have been?

If you’re looking for a true murder mystery play, this is not for you. If you and your family a looking for an evening laughing your heads off, don’t miss this accomplished play. How on earth did they pull it all off?

At the end, we were touchingly thanked for coming back to the theatre by the cast. Try to stop us I’d say!

Tickets are available to book at the Everyman Theatre box office.

Review by Danielle Ellis. Find Danielle on Instagram - @breadbakerdani