Review: Brit-Farce THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG Literally Brings Down The House

All the context you'll need to deal with at the Lyceum's latest offering, Britain's Mischief Theatre import, The Play That Goes Wrong, is right there in the title. Forgoing pesky details like plot and character development, the two-act evening of visual gags - some worthy of a Mack Sennet silent - pieced together by bits of verbal silliness is one of those endeavors that charges onto the stage as a force of choreographed chaos, bombarding the audience with so many jabs to the funny bone that even if only a third of them strike properly you're in for a sufficient number of laughs.

The 2015 Olivier Award winner for Best New Comedy was penned by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, all members of director Mark Bell's eight-member original ensemble, each of whom has crossed the Atlantic to make their Broadway debut.

This is one of those shows where the audience is advised to arrive early to enjoy the pre-performance hijinks. We are at the Cornley Polytechnic University Drama Society's presentation of a 1920s chestnut, "The Murder at Haversham Manor" and even before the performance begins stage manager Annie (Nancy Zamit) and sound/lighting operator Trevor (Rob Falconer, stationed in one of the theatre boxes) are dealing with technical snafus.

A welcoming speech by director Chris (Shields) explains how the modestly-budgeted company has had bad luck in the past finding plays suited for their small number of actors (accounting for their past productions of "Two Sisters" and "The Lion and the Wardrobe") and that they're very excited to finally be putting on a suitable piece on a larger scale.

The plot of "The Murder at Haversham Manor" turns out to be of little significance because Chris, who is also a cast member, and his on-stage colleagues of varying degrees of competence (played by Sayer, Lewis, Dave Hearn, Charlie Russell and Greg Tannahill) fall victim to a steady and well-paced stream of misfires. Aside from the amateur theatre standbys - missed cues, forgotten lines, mispronounced words, missing props - there's the matter of prop bottle of scotch that's been filled with white spirit (paint thinner) and the fact that the distracTed Trevor keeps accidentally blasting his Duran Duran CD.

When leading lady Sandra (Russell) gets knocked out by an opening door, Annie gets thrown in to take her place. Though nervous at first, she grows to enjoy the spotlight, and refuses to give Sandra her role back when she recovers. For the rest of the evening, the two take whacks at each other in cartoonish bits of physical violence, trying to incapacitate the other.

While the cast members expertly pull off their madness with crack timing, the star of the show turns out to be set designer Nigel Hook, whose drawing room interior is booby trapped with incompetent carpentry and gradually collapses entirely.

But the mystery of the evening is not who committed the murder at Haversham Manor, but why such calamities all took place during this one performance. Does the Drama Society have a history of incompetence? Did someone sabotage the show? Did inexperienced replacements get thrown in at the last minute?

While there are plenty of laughs to be had at The Play That Goes Wrong, the enjoyment comes primarily from an appreciation of the comedic skills on display. A bit of empathy-inducing playwriting might elevate the show to something beyond a long, albeit amusing, skit.