Last night four of us from three different culture backgrounds were in the Trafalgar Studios watching the hit comedy The Play That Goes Wrong. We were all impressed. A combination of slapstick (doors opening unexpectedly, actresses being hauled up walls in undignified positions, moving corpses), verbal dexterity (including the first time I've heard "façade" being pronounced rudely), speed, confusion and all the other stereotypes of farce (characters trying desperately to maintain their cool while chaos whirls around them) came together in a perfect storm of laughter.The play in question is Murder at Haversham Manor, being presented by Cornley Polytechnic Amateur Dramatics (or some such group). There is a corpse, a detective, an aging butler (played, of course, by a young man with white stuff in his hair), a beautiful young woman (played by someone who can't act, in contrast with the others, who can only overact) and several upper-class young men braying appropriately. Plus various stagehands who appear at inappropriate moments. Props get mislaid, ornaments fall off walls, lines get mixed up - and repeated and repeated and repeated - and so on.
Yes, we saw something similar in Noises Off, but Romeo and Juliet isn't the only play to feature young lovers. Plus, it's only an hour long, which is exhausting for the actors who have to repeat it twice a night (and who have to clean their clothes and faces of the various liquids and substances and cosmetics with which they end each performance), but it's just the right length for an audience who need a rest after so much laughing.
On at the Trafalgar Studios till 1st June
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