The play that goes wrong by getting it right
Filipinos love comedy and are easily drawn to laughter, as seen at the gala night of The Play That Goes Wrong, presented by GMG Productions in arrangement with Mischief Worldwide Ltd., at The Theatre at Solaire. An Olivier and Tony Award winner, the play is the longest-running comedy in the West End and has been performed in over 50 countries across six continents over the past decade. Perhaps what makes it absolutely hilarious for a global audience is not just the fact that it assembles a superb, diverse cast which, for the Manila run, includes our very own theater star Mikkie Bradshaw-Volante, a Philstage Gawad Buhay awardee, together with West End, Australian and New Zealand actors; but because it’s a spoof of mishaps in British theater which is known for its seriousness and high standards—making missed cues, forgotten lines, collapsing sets and general chaos on stage even more ridiculous. But then again, it’s this reputation and expertise that makes this production work, so that the apparent catastrophe is the result of extraordinary precision and technical ingenuity.
First off, this is a play within a play. Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, it follows the am-dram Cornley Drama Society as it attempts to stage The Murder at Haversham Manor, a 1920s whodunnit. The immersion already begins when you read the playbill, which is a program within a program, crediting actors as their real selves and as the actors of the Society, with the most farcical write-ups that will get you in the mood for the evening ahead. Upon entering, the production crew is making the rounds in the theater, looking for a dog that’s part of the mystery drama and recruiting someone from the audience to help in the stage setup, which is already problematic and acts as the prelude to the whole length of the play where everything that can go wrong does.
The complicated accidents elicit the laughter thanks to the cast who have the perfect comedic timing to make them look completely spontaneous. Bradshaw-Volante as Sandra Wilkinson who plays Florence Colleymoore in the murder mystery is West End-ready with a consistent accent, skillfully distinguishing the two characters, exuding a glamorous sophistication while displaying her gifts for both verbal and physical comedy including those dangerously spectacular window and door mishaps. Her chemistry with the other characters is also a big plus, generating much-needed comic synergy.
Tom Babbage as Chris Bean playing Inspector Carter and the director elicits laughs by projecting self-importance and authority that turns into desperation when everything falls apart. Meanwhile, Owen Jenkins as Robert Grove, playing Thomas Colleymoore, maintains the illusion of being in control even under the most ridiculous predicaments. Liam Horrigan as Jonathan Harris playing the murder victim, Charles Haversham, also manages utmost control as a tool to make an apparent corpse dramatically funny.
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Sebastiano Pitruzzello as Max Bennet playing Cecil Haversham, Charles’ brother, has many exaggerated antics as he transforms from innocent to mischievous. His scenes with Sandra are a riot. Tom Hayward as Dennis Tyde playing Perkins, the butler, is a natural in making the verbal mistakes sound genuinely accidental and amusing while Olivia Charalambous as Annie Twilloil keeps you on edge with the escalating panic of the stage manager trying to save a doomed production. Just as crucially ever-present is Tom Bulpett (understudy for Jake Curran) as Trevor Watson, the lighting and sound designer, reacting convincingly to the unfolding calamities.
Director Hannah Sharkey maintains the clarity of the two plays running simultaneously to produce the humor in their collision, while calibrating the rhythm to allow comic situations to develop before escalating into outrageous complications. It’s amazing how she choreographs the chaos of actors executing impossible movements while pretending they have no control over what’s happening and how she gradually intensifies the disasters until it reaches an insane level of theatrical catastrophe.
Nigel Hook’s set is simply amazing, a major team player as every architectural element fulfills a distinct role. It’s quite a feat of design where an elegant English manor slowly disintegrates precisely with every mechanical and visual surprise integrated in the action and storytelling. Jason Bovaird’s lighting design creates the suspenseful atmosphere of the murder mystery and switches appropriately to undermine it with comedy or to direct us to the next accidents, which are made believable through the strategic sound design of D Cortezano, another Philstage Gawad Buhay awardee in the production.
With all the creative departments working beautifully together, The Play That Goes Wrong is no doubt a demonstration of stagecraft at its most inventive and precise, reminding us that live theater requires extraordinary coordination among performers, directors, designers, stage managers and technicians. What makes it particularly fascinating is its celebration of the apparent failure of theater through the actual success of good theater-making, with a good deal of laughs all throughout.
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The Play That Goes Wrong runs until Nov. 22 at The Theatre at Solaire, with new Orchestra seats just released from P1,000.
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