The Play That Goes Wrong - Curve Review

Mischief Theatre's first and arguably best work, The Play That Goes Wrong, continues to delight audiences as it returns to Curve as part of the latest UK and Ireland tour.

Damien James, Kazeem Tosin Amore, Edi De Melo, Harry Boyd, Clare Noy, Gabriel Paul, Beth Lilly, Will Taylor, Mary McGurk, Steven Rostance, Aisha Numah. Photo by Robert Day.

The side-splitting smash written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields sees us as the audience at Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society's first night of murder mystery play The Murder at Haversham Manor. Before the performance begins the scene is set with some wonderful pre-show work which includes a search for the lost dog Winston and a member of the audience brought onto the stage to help fix some of the staging.

The Murder at Haversham Manor itself is a similar piece to The Mousetrap except here anything that could go wrong simply does go wrong to hilarious effect. After the curtain-raising mishaps director, Chris Bean steps on stage to greet the audience and introduces the performances following the Drama Society's previous productions including Cat and The Lion and the Wardrobe. 

I don't want to give much away from the performance, and you don't want to go in knowing what to expect but just imagine the things that could go wrong and I'm sure you won't be too far wrong. There's outstanding physical comedy and slapstick that the magnificent cast delivers with real skill, it takes a lot to make something go wrong so effortlessly whilst also being hilariously funny too.

Colin Burnicle stands out as director Chris Bean who plays Inspector Carter in the play. Burnicle gives a comedic tour-de-force performance including some superb improvisation following some audience heckles. Kazeem Tosin Amore delights as Robert who plays Thomas Colleymoore, he is a tremendous actor with a fine eye for comedy. 

Colin Burnicle. Photo by Robert Day.

Gabriel Paul does a great job as Trevor, the slightly incompetent lighting and sound operator who is more focused on his lost Duran Duran CD than he is on the production. Edi De Melo's Max constantly breaks character as Cecil Haversham and Arthur the Gardener to beamingly smile at any laugh he gets and it's never not funny. Damien James's Dennis plays Perkins the Butler and he is never not creating some little moment of great comedy. Steven Rostance as Jonathan sets the scene and often appears when he shouldn't be seen.

The two female performances Beth Lilly as Annie and Aisha Numah as Sandra are greatly characterised and spend many of the latter scenes bickering and fighting for the spotlight against each other. 

Nigel Hook's set design is really clever and allows for the physicality of the comedy to land every time especially as the events of the performance play out. 

It's not hard to see why The Play That Goes Wrong continues to leave the audiences in stitches of laughter. It's a modern-day comedy masterpiece. You'll leave the theatre feeling uplifted and joyous after enjoying a couple of hours of comedy that will have you crying with laughter. Genius.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Play That Goes Wrong continues at Curve until Saturday 14th May. Tickets are available from https://www.curveonline.co.uk/. The tour continues with dates currently booking through until August 2022 - further details from the Mischief Theatre website

(Clockwise) Damien James, Kazeem Tosin Amore, Edi De Melo, Aisha Numah, Steven Rostance. Photo by Robert Day