There’s nothing in theatre quite like a good farce especially when combined with a murder mystery and The Play That Goes Wrong currently playing at the ASB Waterfront Theatre is a perfect example.
The main premise is we are watching the opening night of a production called Murder at Havisham Manor put on by an amateur dramatic society in the fictitious English town of Cornley. The actors therefore are playing actors in the play within the play.
The director of Havisham Manor greets us before curtain rise and explains the Cornley Drama Society has a long history of productions stymied by small budgets and rather disastrous outcomes, but he seems almost proud, or more likely oblivious to what he is admitting.
As should be obvious by now, the action takes place in the eponymous Havisham Manor where its owner is found murdered.
What follows is a bungled whodunnit and as promised the production literally falls down around the actors. Props don’t work, doors get stuck, parts of the set fall apart and more than one cast member forgets their lines. In one hilarious instance several cast members repeat part of a scened repeatedly due to the ineptness of one of their fellow thespians. In another dramatic moment the leading lady gets knocked out and a technician has to step in but hasn’t a clue what is really going on.
The entire show is full of mayhem, jokes, and some very funny slapstick and pratfalls. The cast are fantastic and I have to say very adept at making this extremely well choreographed chaos seem very real, after all, the staging would have to be an occupational and safety nightmare!
As the show heads towards its conclusion the mayhem and infighting reaches a climax that gets very close to being a little overdone for even this deliberately messy show, but overall , there are a couple of slow patches in the show but overall The Play That Goes Wrong is a wonderfully funny romp that is expertly performed.
THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG
14 May – 1 June 2025
