Another standout in the current The Play That Goes Wrong cast is Ross Virgo, whose actor is so chuffed by any audience response that he immediately breaks character to grin inanely. When he snaps his sword mid-fight, he makes sound effects for it, like a child vocalising a lightsaber.
Keith Ramsay is excellent as the dialogue-mangling butler (cyanide becomes “kai-an-eye-dee”), who all but poisons his castmates by switching scotch for white spirit (“What’s the vintage?” “Flammable and corrosive, sir”). Rolan Bell juxtaposes lord-of-the-manor pomp with increasing exasperation, until, while stranded on a lethally raked platform, forced to use a large globe like a Zimmer frame, he spectacularly loses his cool.
Wonderful too are Lucy Doyle as the attention-seeking actress and Iona Fraser as the stage manager forced to replace her, plus Gavin Dunn as the distracted tech operator, and Daniel Cech-Lucas as the show’s beleaguered director and star, who scolds the audience when someone shouts out. “It’s not pantomime!” he cries desperately.
Perhaps not in name, but with its highly physical comedy, send-ups of familiar tropes (here posh chaps in cricket jumpers and blazers, overwrought music cues and overcomplicated denouements), Mark Bell’s production provides a similar chaotic joy. In fact, more audience interaction might be welcome. But then why mess with (im)perfection? With the Peter Pan Goes Wrong tour coming to the West End soon, and The Play That Goes Wrong run looking unstoppable, Mischief have turned disaster into triumph.
Currently booking until Nov 3, 2024
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