Author Topic: The Play That Goes Wrong  (Read 2702 times)

Offline Peter B

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The Play That Goes Wrong
« on: April 25, 2017, 09:38:13 AM »
Knowing the number of thespians on this forum, I thought I'd make a brief mention on this play.

I went to see it tonight (wife won tickets, yay me!) and laughed myself silly.

For those not in the know (and I was one of them until a few days ago) it's a play about an amateur drama company putting on a murder mystery play, only to be foiled...by everything - a wobbly set, missed cues, actors forgetting lines, misplaced props, and so on - but valiantly struggling on and improvising around the unfolding disaster.

It's as though the authors made a list of every disaster they've ever seen on a production, and included it in the play.

But although it looks chaotic, and at one point one actor lost it and started giggling, it's also clear the whole thing is tightly plotted and managed. It also requires the actors to be alert to managing unexpected problems (or taking advantage of them).

If I had any criticism of the production, it was the tendency to try to push the pregnant pauses a few seconds too long, which led to a couple of cases of the audience (un)helpfully interjecting their own commentary (I could have smacked the guy a few seats across who called out "Oops!" a couple of times as the actors realised the latest problem they were facing - I didn't need to know he'd worked out the joke).

So if a production of this play comes to a theatre near you, go see it!

Offline Geordie

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Re: The Play That Goes Wrong
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2017, 01:05:46 PM »
  That makes me think of Jerry, "a show about nothing".

 

  And The Muppet Show!

  Oh, I almost forgot Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler.

  I love meta-productions; I'll definitely check out The Play That Goes Wrong if when it comes to town.

Offline twik

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Re: The Play That Goes Wrong
« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2017, 12:55:30 PM »
That sounds like a great comedy, and I'd like to see it.

And it has a nice tie-in to Apollo Hoax. How could anyone say "We'll do this incredible fake on live tv, and nothing will go wrong. People 60 years from now still won't see through the special effects. It'll be bullet-proof forever!"

Offline Peter B

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Re: The Play That Goes Wrong
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2019, 03:32:06 AM »
And today the whole family went to see "Peter Pan Goes Wrong" - the same concept but with the added fun of Peter Pan rigs and a rotating stage.

Not as funny as TPTGW, but it still provided plenty of LOL moments. It probably suffered most from trying to be all things to all audience members: a good movie/play/whatever which is intended for kids can include plenty of adult humour, but it's best done with subtlety. By contrast, some of PPGW's adult humour involved two of three characters in a love triangle going at it with much more gusto than simply having a good pash.

The best bit for me was that the Narrator character was played by actor Jay Lagaia, who has a lot of experience presenting the iconic young kids' TV show "Play School", and he got the opportunity to call on that during PPGW.

Offline ka9q

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Re: The Play That Goes Wrong
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2019, 03:44:31 AM »
Sounds like Carl Reiner's 1967 film Enter Laughing. Saw it a few months ago.