Performance: The Play That Goes Wrong
Date: 15th March 2017
Location: The Duchess
Theatre, London
Seat: Dress Circle, D11.
Rating: 9/10
I'd
firstly like to apologise for the lack of activity on the blog over
the past six months. Unforunately, Masters work has got on top of me
a bit and not only has the blog suffered but so have the evening
outings to the theatre. However, having remade my debut back into
theatre life by a surprise trip to The Curious Incident of the Dog
in the Nightime at
the Gielgud by
D, I've been trying to expand my horizons theatre-wise in a
few different ways this year. Most notably, I've been trying to see
more plays in a variety of different venues. Big, small, popular,
unknown, I am absolutely desperate to try and rediscover the magic of
small productions and plays. Having worked at two small theatre
venues myself, I am fully aware of how special and intimate the
experience can be.
So on a complete whim, and because I'm
incredibly lucky, D managed to snag us two free tickets to The
Play That Goes Wrong. As it
wouldn't be my immediate choice of theatre poison (I'm a little bit
of a sucker for the musical melancholic) I had no idea what to
expect. That being said, I went in with no pre-requisites and an open
mind, the theatre to me will always be an exciting experience no
matter what is put in front of me (a bit like food).
The
first thing that captured my attention about the theatre was the the
intimacy of it. As mentioned above, I love looking and being in
theatrical spaces, and small intimate theatres are definitely my
favourite. I believe the theatre seats somewhere in the region of 300
people, so it was indeed very small. It felt very personal and
encapsulating as a space which was something I really enjoyed.
Secondly,
I loved how from the moment we sat down, the actors were in the
audience, engaging with us from the get go. Of course, classical
theatre is just as fun and it has its place in the world of
performance but it can sometimes feel very impersonal and almost too
fictional when the actors are restricted to the stage. Immersive
theatre can for some, be a marmite situation and can range from the
actors simply using the audience space as the stage, to actually
engaging with audience members. For me, immersive theatre is the best
kind of theatre, it breaks down the barrier between actors and
audience and makes the theatre not just a visual encounter but an
actual experience where you feel fully absorbed in the tale being
shown to you.
The
Play That Goes Wrong is a quite
literally a play about a play that goes wrong. It tells the tale of
an amateur university theatre company (with a history of calamitious
plays) putting on a who-dunnit murder mystery play. Its hard to go
more in detail than that without ruining the entire performace, but
the comedy rests mainly on slapstick and it works fantastically. It
had me bent double, laughing so hard. I've never ever seen anything
quite like it and it was all so fantastically executed. The staging
of the play is absolutely incredible, with everything presumably
being timed to the micro-second to ensure the safety of the actors,
in reality its the play that went very very right! I also must
mention the brilliance of the programme. It went along with the theme
and feel of the show and of the university drama society, and had me
and D laughing out loud at some of the things written in it. It
really helped to knit together the authenticity and hilarity of the
play.
I would highly recommend anyone of any age going. The
comedy appeals in many different ways to everyone, especially if you
are looking for a lighthearted, fun evening of gentle theatre!
