The Play That Goes Wrong

The Play That Goes Wrong is a play within a play created by the Mischief Theatre Company and performed by the fictitious Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society.

## The Play That Goes Wrong

### Written by

Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields

## Characters

* Chris Bean, who plays Inspector Carter and serves as the show's director, set designer, costume designer, prop maker, box office manager, press and PR person, dramaturgy, voice coach, dialect coach, and fight choreographer and filled in for the role of Mr. Fitzroy during rehearsals
* Jonathan Harris, who plays Charles Haversham
* Robert Grove, who plays Thomas Colleymoore
* Dennis Tyde, who plays Perkins
* Sandra Wilkinson, who plays Florence Colleymoore
* Max Bennett, who plays both Cecil Haversham and Arthur the Gardener
* Trevor Watson, the lighting and sound operator
* Annie Twilloil, the stage manager

## Plot Summary

* Goes Right
* Goes Wrong

After benefitting from a large and sudden inheritance, the inept and accident-prone Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society embark on producing an ambitious 1920s murder mystery. They are delighted that neither casting issues nor technical hitches currently stands in their way. However, disaster ensues and the cast start to crack under the pressure, but can they get the production back on track before the final curtain falls.

Before the play starts the audience see the backstage staff doing last-minute adjustments to the set, including trying to mend a broken mantelpiece and find a dog that has run off.

During the performance, a play within a play, a plethora of disasters befall the cast, including doors sticking, props falling from the walls, and floors collapsing. Cast members are seen misplacing props, forgetting lines (in one scene, an actor repeats an earlier line of dialogue and causes the dialogue sequence triggered by that line to be repeated, ever more frenetically, several times), missing cues, breaking character, having to drink white spirit instead of whisky (paint thinner in the U.S. production), mispronouncing words, stepping on fingers, being hidden in a grandfather clock, and being manhandled off stage, with one cast member being knocked unconscious and her replacement (and the group technician) refusing to yield when she returns. The climax is a tribute to a scene in Buster Keaton's film *Steamboat Bill, Jr.* (1928), when virtually the whole of the remaining set collapses.

## Full Plot

### ACT ONE

The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society are presenting an old fashioned Murder Mystery play called ‘The Murder at Haversham Manor’. The play is set in a big stately home somewhere in England on a snowy night in winter. The play begins with the Character Chris who, as the director of the play, gives a short speech about the performance.

As the ‘Play Within a Play’ begins the character Robert and the character Dennis in their roles as Thomas and Perkins, discover Charles’ dead body on a chaise longue in his private rooms. Thomas immediately makes a phone call to Inspector Carter to get police help and call in the character Sandra in her role as Florence and the character Max in his role as Cecil, they are both very upset. Cecil is certain the death was a suicide and reads a passage from Charles’ private diary that seems to say he knew his fiancé was cheating on him and was heartbroken.

The Inspector arrives very quickly and he asks Perkins and Thomas to take the body upstairs so that it can be examined. *(Robert and Dennis try to do this but the stretcher they are using to lift him breaks and Jonathan is left to sneak off-stage.)* He follows them leaving Florence and Cecil downstairs alone. The audience find out about their affair and Cecil proposes to Florence. Meanwhile, upstairs in Charles’ study, the inspector discovers a letter in Charles’ jacket. Whilst Perkins is checking the body for fingerprints, Thomas is sure he sees the dead body breathing. Back downstairs the inspector conducts some inquires, firstly he questions Perkins about how well he knew and liked Charles. Perkins tells him that they were very close and he could have no motive to kill him. Then he questions Florence and reveals to her that he has read the letter found in Charles’ pocket and now knows about the affair. *(Some of the lines between Sandra and Chris do not make much sense as the lines they are speaking go out of sync with one another as they are not listening properly)* Sandra is outraged that the Inspector would suspect her of such a thing and begins shouting for help.

At this point the actress playing the character Sandra gets knocked out by the door and her body is then dragged off-stage through the window. From this point onwards the actress playing the character Annie will take over the role of Florence. Finally he questions Cecil about his relationship with his brother which Cecil admits was strained. The inspector accuses him but he denies any wrongdoing and leaves. The inspector is left alone to ponder who might be the murderer when he discovers a ledger (a kind of book for banking) with Charles’ newly written last will and testament inside. Cecil and Thomas enter the room and the Inspector leaves via the elevator to examine this new piece of evidence.

In the downstairs room Thomas receives a confusing phone call from his accountant telling him that some money has been stolen from his bank account. Cecil then admits to Thomas that he has been having an affair with Thomas’ sister. Thomas is very upset and they end up having a sword fight in which Cecil gets hurt. They exit the stage and gun shots are heard from somewhere in the house. The Inspector, Perkins and Florence and gather in the downstairs room *(This is Annie’s first entrance in the role of Florence)*. Just then, Cecil comes reeling into the room with gunshot wounds and dies. Perkins and Thomas take the body outside and Florence has an hysterical episode at the loss of her lover. *(Annie doesn’t know how to represent the emotion properly as she is not an actor.)* The Inspector asks a few more questions of the assembled group and they realise that the murderer must be one of the people currently in that room. *(Dennis keeps saying a line from earlier in the scene and so they have to do it five times, with everyone getting increasingly angry with Dennis!).*

### ACT TWO

The play starts again with another speech from the character Chris *(not in his role)*, apologising for the mistakes in Act One. *(When the curtain is lifted for the start of Act Two the cast are not ready and there is chaos all across the stage.)* When the ‘Play Within a Play’ starts again the Inspector goes off in search of the murderer. Thomas, Florence and Perkins stand horrified at all the destruction and the clock strikes twelve. From upstairs in the study, Inspector Carter calls through the voice pipe *(A way of communicating between rooms in large houses)* to Thomas asking him to come and join him. The Inspector reveals a gun that he has found, he tells Thomas that he knows it was him that killed Cecil and that ‘that wasn’t the plan’ suggesting that the inspector and Thomas may have had something to do with this evening’s horrors. Downstairs Florence and Perkins hear an ominous knock at the door. Fearing it may be the murderer Perkins hides Florence in a secret compartment behind a bookcase *(At this point the stage manager Trevor finds himself accidentally on stage and hides inside the grandfather clock)* but when he opens that door it is only Arthur the Gardener *(Who is played by the character Max who played the role Cecil in Act One)*. Perkins explains the awful things that have happened there this evening *(At this point Max knocks into the pole that supports the upper level knocking it loose and making the whole thing drop a little, making it very precarious for Robert and Chris who try desperately to get out. Robert accidentally breaks the door handle trapping them there)*. Back downstairs Arthur reveals that he has found a handkerchief in the grounds that seems to be stained with cyanide (a very powerful poison). They notice that the handkerchief is embroidered with the initials F.C. and conclude that the murderer must be Florence Colleymoore. Perkins reveals her hiding place.

Upstairs the men talk about the last will and testament it turns out that in the event of his death, Charles had left his entire estate to Perkins. They conclude Perkins must be the murderer. *(Chris is unable to go downstairs normally and has to jump off the side of the upper level).* Just as the Inspector is about to blame Perkins for the murder he is confronted with the handkerchief and blames Florence instead. Just then the phone rings and it is Thomas’s accountant again. *(Robert is stuck on the upper level and laden with furniture so the cast have to create a chain across the stage to get the phone to his ear. As soon as he puts down the phone he takes all the furniture and starts banging at the broken door until Jonathan comes to help him.)*

Downstairs the assembled men blame Florence for the murder, she protests her innocence *(at this point Annie is knocked out with the door by Robert. Luckily Sandra wakes up just in time to take over the role of Florence again.)* The inspector leaves Florence in Arthur’s custody for a minute and she tries to win him over with her beauty but loyal Arthur resists *(At this point Max pushes Sandra into the grandfather clock which surprises Trevor, who is still hidden inside, he opens the door knocking her out again. Together they hide her unconscious body in the clock and Trevor is forced to take on the role of Florence).* Eventually Arthur can resist her no longer and they are caught kissing by the rest of the cast.

Florence faints after more accusations but Arthur realizes that Florence can not be guilty as he saw a male figure creeping around the grounds. The Inspector returns his blame to Perkins and has him handcuffed to the chaise longue. Just then Charles bursts in and explains that he was not dead after all. The plan to poison him had failed. He reveals all he knows about the Inspector and Thomas’s plan. He tells Thomas how the Inspector was pretending to be his friend but in reality he was stealing from him too.

Thomas shoots Inspector Carter and then Charles poisons Thomas, his former best friend. The play ends with Thomas surrounded by bodies praying that such an awful thing will never happen again. (This section is pretty chaotic, Sandra and Annie both fight over who will get to play the role of Florence and the set begins to come apart ending in the whole thing falling down!)

## Productions

### London (2012–present) and UK tours (2014–present)

The play premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre in London in 2012, moved to Trafalgar Studios in 2013. The play then opened at the Duchess Theatre in the West End on 14 September 2014, where it remains and is currently booking until January 2022. The direction is by Mark Bell. The cast included Henry Shields as Chris, Dave Hearn as Max, Rob Falconer as Trevor, Henry Lewis as Robert, Charlie Russell as Sandra, Jonathan Sayer as Dennis, Greg Tannahill as Jonathan, and Nancy Zamit as Annie. Sets are designed by Nigel Hook and built by Splinter Scenery. Costumes are designed by Roberto Surace.

The play began a UK tour in January 2014 at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, visiting 17 venues and ending in Darlington in July, prior to the opening at the Duchess Theatre in London. It began a second UK tour from January 2017, starting at the Theatre Royal in Bath, ending at the Cambridge Arts Theatre in August. A third UK tour occurred in 2018, ending in October in Poole. And a fourth UK tour commenced on 13 July 2021 at the Marlowe Theatre Canterbury, and is due to conclude at the Waterside Theatre Aylesbury on 27 November 2021.

### Broadway (2017)

The play opened on Broadway on 2 April 2017, with previews that began on 9 March 2017 at the Lyceum Theatre. The production featured the original London cast, and film director J. J. Abrams made his debut as a theatrical producer. The production closed on 6 January 2019, after 745 regular performances and 27 previews.

### Australian tour (2017)

A touring production began in Australia at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne from February 2017, before heading to Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and Perth.

### US Tour (2018)

The play toured North America, starting in September 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The original tour cast included Brandon J. Ellis as Trevor, Evan Alexander Smith as Chris, Yaegel T. Welch as Jonathan, Peyton Crim as Robert, Scott Cote as Dennis, Jamie Ann Romero as Sandra, Ned Noyes as Max, and Angela Grovey as Annie. Also on the tour as understudies were Michael Thatcher, Sid Solomon, Blair Baker, and Jacqueline Jarrold.

### Off-Broadway (2019)

The Broadway production transferred Off-Broadway to New World Stages on 11 February 2019. As of March 12, production was suspended through June 7, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This suspension was extended until October 15, 2021.

## Trivia

* Each different production has different wallpaper.
* Chris Claydon makes all the curtains for Broadway. He also does *The Phantom of the Opera* ones, so they got a little fancier.
* *The Play That Goes Wrong* has been translated and licensed for productions in over 30 other countries, namely China, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Greece, Israel, Scandinavia, France, Italy, Iceland, Brazil, Germany, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Turkey, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, South Africa, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Portugal (UAU), Croatia, Russia, India (Natak na Natak nu Natak by Sharman Joshi Productions) and the Czech Republic.