The Play That Goes Wrong

It takes a great deal of skill to be consistently incompetent.

To corrupt a famous quote, most of us can manage it sometimes, some of us can manage it most times, but for everyone to manage it all the time, well, that requires real genius.

The cast of The Play That Goes Wrong does it perfectly, reducing the audience to helpless guffaws in this multi-award winning romp. It’s the loudest I’ve heard an audience laugh for a long time, with unbridled glee rocking the aisles as the madcap antics are matched with smart humour and brilliant timing.

The plot is simple on one level – an amateur dramatics group is staging an ambitious murder mystery, complete with a sound engineer in the wings and a paucity of functioning props. On another level it’s way more sophisticated than the words ‘farce’ or ‘slapstick’ conjure up. There’s a finesse and beauty to this production that make the belly laughs ache all the more.

Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, the play has graced London’s West End and Broadway and won kudos including the 2015 Olivier Award Winner for Best New Comedy. It’s been brought to South Africa by Pieter Toerien Productions with a local cast under the guiding light of master comedian Alan Committie as the director.

Nobody in the cast stands out, because they all do. They all play off each other beautifully, in a script laced with lovely puns, rich wit and endless muddled up interactions that work because the comic timing is flawless.

Since this is the third time it's enjoyed a run there have been some changes in line-up along the way, although Russel Savadier is still delightful as the commanding inspector. Roberto Pombo elicits huge laughs with his mispronunciations as a dense butler, and Craig Jackson is flamboyant as the brother of the corpse who hams it up for the crowds.

It’s supremely silly, with visual gags galore. Some of the most hilarious physical moments come when Nicole Franco and Sive Gubangxa are slugging it out in a catfight to be the leading lady, while Louis Viljoen as a rogue sound engineer contributes immensely to the melodrama.

The exquisite stage set would do an Agatha Christie murder proud, until the precarious scenery begins tumbling to pieces in perfectly coordinated comedy. I’d watch this lovely lunacy again in an instant.

The Play That Goes Wrong is at Cape Town's Theatre on the Bay until December 1, then Montecasino Theatre from December 7 to January 6.  Tickets from Computicket