That goes to the latest iteration of theatrical presentation by the Garrettsville Curtains Up Theatre, a farce titled “The Play That Goes Wrong”…which it did in so many ways–all of ‘em intended but, still….
The whole premise of the thing, I think, is to illustrate some of the various things that can go wrong in any dramatic–or musical, for that matter–production. These include set malfunctions or non-functions, disappearing props or set features, insufficiently dead bodies, surprise appearance of stage hand-type personnel, noises from off-stage (even worse ones onstage sometimes); there’s a whole ‘nother play named “Noises Off” that’s actually pretty funny too. These situations are dealt with in various ways, and sometimes just ignored in hopes that nobody will notice–but they usually do, notice that is. Sometimes the errors are nearly as good as the original action called for (Trust me on this; I have “been there, done that”). Things even went wrong that truly were WRONG backstage, but that old show biz saying , “The show must go on” kicked in and it went on to the end with everyone scrambling to make it happen.
The number of –relatively–dead bodies climbs over the course of the show, the number of suspects climbs, as do the weapons suspected. The reaction to the alcohol in the dangerous bottle was pretty gross/messy, the collapse of the upstairs into the downstairs was amazingly managed, without a single loss of limb, that we could see. This production had plenty of opportunity for damage to limbs–more walking into things, falling off of things, falling through things than one might see in lots of plays…or even WWE matches. Apparently the liquor was bad, the phone service was bad, the snow was bad(Worst blizzard I’ve ever seen in a show), the engagement party was bad (so was the engagement) and the inspector wasn’t much good either.
The “Murder at Haversham Manor”–the debut of long-time Garrettsville Curtains Up Theatre participant Elisha Bly as director–truly was “The Play That Goes Wrong” (Just look at the mistakes on the program cover). Tickets are still available. Get yours now or you’ll be wrong too.
