“The Play That Goes Wrong” by Mischief Theatre Company

Nottingham Theatre Royal

The fictitious Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, fresh from such hits as “The Lion and The Wardrobe”, “Cat”, and “James and the Peach”, is putting on a performance of “The Murder at Haversham Manor” – a 1920s murder mystery play, similar to “The Mousetrap”. This time around though there are enough cast members to fill all of the parts needed!

The script was written by the fictitious Susie H. K. Brideswell. 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, missing cues, breaking character, having to drink white spirit instead of whisky, 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. And this list is just the tip of the iceberg! The climax is a masterclass in technical theatre.

Having seen this play before I knew that I was in for a brilliant night of comedy, and it did not fail to deliver. This is one of the funniest plays going, and one of the most technical and clever plays doing the rounds. This farce, and I know that the definition of a farce is to have five doors (entrances and exits) and this play does fall into that genre, is timed to within an inch of its' life. The slapstick is as good as any of the silent film era of Keaton, Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy. The proof of this is when you hear the audience belly laughing, not just giggling or laughing, but full-on guffaws.

The cast are Tom Bulpett (Chris), Gabriel Paul (Trevor), Tom Babbage (Max), Sean Carey (Jonathan), Edward Howells (Dennis), Leonard Cook (Robert), Laura Kirman (Annie)Aisha Numah (Lottie), Edi De Milo (Gunther), Katie Hitchcock (Cynthia), Damien James (Mike) and April Hughes (Sandra). They work as a team, as you have to with the technicality of this comedy. There is a certain amount of improvisation where audience participation was entered into, again showing the prowess of these actors. Gabriel Paul especially "warming up" the crowd before the play got into the full swing of things.

The design of the set (Nigel Hook) is brilliantly worked out when you see where it starts and how it ends up.

Directed by Sean Turner, this play is probably the tightest, and even more probably, most rehearsed piece of theatre you will see in a very long time, and if you are like me and seen this comedy before, appreciate just what a clever piece of theatre this is.

The technical side of the play is not the only clever part, because the script is also very clever and at the speed that this cast sometimes deliver it. Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields.

This is the sort of theatre production that you can take your five-year-old to as well as your one hundred- and five-year-old to and they will both laugh at the same parts. A real family show, which is a rare thing in theatre today.

Let's face it, there's still not a lot to laugh about at the moment, but this play will make you forget everything outside the theatre doors and for just over two hours they will have your sides and facial muscles aching with laughter. A proper tonic for life and I for one will never tire of seeing this brilliant comedy.

“The Play That Goes Wrong” hits all the right notes for me and can be seen at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 28 August.