In the afternoon of the 17th September 2022, left my hotel around 1pm after a well-needed lazy morning. DLR to Tower Gateway, a short walk over to Tower Hill Tube Station and then the District line to Temple Station. Temple Station.. wow.. It’s like a ghost station. A 10 minute or so walk up across the Strand and past the street entrance to the old Aldwych Station and on to the Duchess Theatre.

A short queue was forming outside but only for those with bags. Straight through to have my ticket scanned. As it was an alarm of some sort went off and I was directed to the box office. There were some empty seats in the auditorium so they were upgrading my seat for me. I went from a Dress Circle seat to a Stalls seat. It was still and end of row seat so that’s good. – No charge, nice to get an upgrade.

So I went straight for the bar and splashed out on a double Jack Daniels and Coke… completely forgetting I was in a theatre.. So £12.50 later, I headed into the house, drink in hand. Seat was positioned well. End of the isle and pretty centred to the stage. No photos could be taken inside, they were pretty hot on that, but I will insert a suitable photo if I can find one.

Had just sat down when a booming voice shouts “Ladies and Gentlemen, before we start the show, we have a question to ask you… Has anyone seen a little grey bulldog? His name is Winston and we’ve lost him”. – Ok so he’s in the show then! But unbeknown to the audience, including me is the fact that almost the entire cast is already in the house, ‘looking’ for the dog. The lead randomly walks on to the stage, crossing from stage right to left, stopping in the middle and noticing the audience. ‘Trevor’ (the booming voice) is in and out of the house, talking to people. The Lead mingles in with the crowd, literally stepping in and over seats, searching for the dog. The audience is already well warmed up.

The ‘stage hands’ who can be seen on the stage preparing things.. looks completely innocent. Except they are in the show too, just how much, remains a secret.. for now. The stage is mostly set, but some things are out of place, purposely so that the actors can put things back. There is a lot of physical comedy happening and the play hasn’t started yet. – One of the stage hands was trying to fix the mantlepiece on top of the fireplace, it had.. for some reason, fallen down. After a while of trying without success, she sheepishly slides off the stage, into the audience and asks an audience member for help. She gets him to stand holding the mantlepiece in place and runs away. Trevor returns to the stage and sees the guy. The guy tries to get Trevor to hold the mantlepiece but Trevor is wise to this and also runs away. After a good while, the stage hand returns with gaffer tape and sticks the mantlepiece back on to the fireplace, and also a book on to the top of that. Taped to the wall. Then runs off stage, at which point the slamming of a door makes it all fall down anyway.

On to the start of the show… We get a spoken intro from the lead, introducing us to a recreation of the murder at Haversham Manor, starting with several jokes about it being a directorial debut. Curtin up…

[Don’t worry, no spoilers here] I really think this play is best experienced in person. I’ve seen it, and I’d happily go back and see it over and over again. This was hilariously funny. There’s a great deal of physical comedy in it, but you’d honestly to a point forget that the title is “The Play That Goes Wrong”… It.. really really does. You could almost feel sorry for ‘the lead’, the inspector, on his directorial debut. You can.. certainly see the frustration in his face. I really cannot recommend it enough. Some really good hard, loud belly laugh ‘the-rest-of-the-audience-might-look-at-me’ laughs. But you honestly don’t care. It really is that funny and that good.

So good I had to sit outside afterwards for a few minutes and jot down some notes on my phone. With a title like “The Play That Goes Wrong” you expect some things in the play.. to go.. wrong.. right? But the way it goes wrong, feels so natural. Perhaps expected in some gags, such as getting knocked out by standing behind doors etc, but there are some subtle bits and gags thrown in so fast and so slick that it just works. – There’s a promo photo of it so I’ll talk about it.. The fireplace, falls down and as it does the stage hand sticks her hands through the fireplace to catch the candlesticks, then naturally sticks her head through the middle. A piece goes rolling off into the audience, and the lead breaks the 4th wall to retrieve it, then notices the stage hand who can’t back out because she has hold of the candlesticks. Throughout the next scene she has to stay put as other cast members go to put things on the fireplace, which is already missing its mantlepiece, and instead wedges it between the candlesticks.. and later when they have ran out of room, puts a wallet in her mouth. – It just works.

Right at the start there is a bit where a strong drink is needed, and the person who’s sent for the drink, mixes up an empty bottle with a full bottle, pouring some of the full bottle down a device on the wall.. a horn that you can use to speak to different rooms in the manor, and it comes out downstairs, so the actors downstairs use a bin to collected the liquid. The bit is put back and nothing more happens with it. Until much later in the play where one of the actors lights a cigarette and flicks it towards the bin. Whoof a fire is sparked, the stage hand holding the candlesticks drops them and moves away quick and another actor bursts into the room with a fire extinguisher.. and bursts into a long monologue.. realising somewhat part through it that he is now speaking in a completely different accent.

You.. had to be there.. but, you get the point.

There was an interval, before which.. everything fell off the wall.

During the interval, Trevor was mingling with the crowd again, and came up to me, fist bumped me and called me a legend.. I’ll take it. (I wonder if the ‘upgraded seat’ was some sort of.. set up for audience members to interact with), either way it was pretty damn cool!

When the curtain came back up, it did so as the cast where ‘fixing’ the set, and they said to put the curtain back down. – They were talking to Trevor.. who played the part of hitting sound and lighting queues from an elevated place. He was.. incredibly bad at his job. The curtain came back down and seconds later went up again. The cast delivered the last line that they did before the break and everything that was put back up on the walls fell down again. They carried on as if nothing had happened.

Oh there were so many bits and gags that literally went around and around, but they were fantastic. It was acted with passion and a good positive energy. Go see it, really, you won’t be disappointed.

And I don’t have anything more to say.. Go and see this play. On tour, here in London. Best two hours of the weekend so far. Fantastically fun.

Go see it…

Now..

go on.