It takes a lot of work and practice to make everything go wrong just right. And that’s exactly what’s happening at Lamb’s Player’s Theatre with the production of “The Play That Goes Wrong” by Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, and Jonathan Sayer. This meta-comedy follows a fictional theater group attempting to perform a crime mystery– “The Murder at Haversham Manor” – as everything from actors, props and the set go off-script.
It’s difficult to describe the storyline because it is intentionally not the focus of the show, and by the end, the chaos is purposefully distracting you from the plot for the sake of practical gags. The play begins with an introduction from the fictional stage manager who apologizes for the company’s previous failures, blaming their creative decisions (such as performing “Cat” instead of “Cats”) on unforeseen budget cuts. The lights then shine on an elaborately large set reminiscent of “Gosford Park,” with the body of the deceased, Charles Haversham, lying on a lavish chaise longue.
Within moments, the mantlepiece collapses, members of the cast are carelessly stepping on the fingers of Haversham, and a prop bottle of whiskey is mistakenly replaced with a toxic chemical, causing the actors to violently spit out the liquid in disgust. As the play continues, the set is utterly destroyed, the actors are violently harmed and replaced by overzealous crew members, and the sound operator replaces the soundtrack with Duran Duran. Between the fire effects, smoke machines, collapsing floors, and gratuitous violence, this reporter finished the play having no idea who committed the murder, who actually died, nor any one’s reasons for doing so — which was precisely the point.
Credit for this success is due to Jordan Miller, the real-life assistant director and stunt choreographer who brought this tightly executed show to life. In our preview interview, Miller described the show as “a beast of a play,” saying, “It is a very specific, very detailed, well-oiled machine. You do exactly what the script says because they figured it all out.” If this play were a machine, it would have to be a Rube Goldberg invention featuring a broken prop that leads to the utter collapse of the entire set.
The play is executed by brilliant cast members who are not only able to stay in character as British aristocrats in the midst of an unexplained murder, but also as actors struggling to stay in character as the production falls apart around them. Bryan Banville steals the show in the first act despite playing a cadaver with no speaking lines. His physical comedy and silly slapstick distracts even the cast while he pretends to be dead, as he shuffles across the floor when his cast members fail to exhume his corpse. Spencer Gerber also delivers a stand out performance as “Max,”an ego-fueled actor who gets carried away trying to invoke laughter from the audience.
This show is not for fans of murder-mysteries, but for theater lovers writ large. Every element of the production, from acting to technical, is used to create comedy, whether it’s a broken prop, a faulty light, a missed music cue or even a planted audience member yelling at the actors. For anyone who grew up with or actively participates in theater, it rewards your knowledge of the medium to create comedy out of every technical element available. Blurring the lines between fiction and reality, there were many moments where it seemed like the audience was waiting for the house lights to turn on and an overhead announcement that the actors were in danger and we had to evacuate.
This show’s only weakness is its own excellence at delivering comedy. At moments, the audience was laughing so hard and continuously, the cast had to wait to proceed, or were even interrupted by the misplaced laughter of an audience member. And by the conclusion, the gags are delivered at such a frenetic pace that laughing fatigue sets in, and it feels difficult to catch one’s breath. But ultimately, if the show’s biggest issue is that everyone is laughing too hard and having fun, they’re doing something right.
