The Play That Goes Wrong

Play (2012)
by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields
Directed by Tyler Rosati
Greater Boston Stage Company
March 28 – April 19, 2025

Original Scenic Designer: Peter Colao; Scenic Designer: Danielle Ibrahim; Lighting Designer: Katie Whittemore; Costume Designer: E. Rosser; Sound Designer: James Cannon; Properties Master: David Allen Prescott; Intimacy/Violence Design: Samantha Richert; Production Stage Manager: Meghan Ward; Production Manager: Meghan Ward

With Paul Melendy (Chris, as Inspector Carter), Sarah Gazdowicz (Sandra, as Florence Colleymoore), Ceit Zweil (Annie, as the stage manager), Mark Linehan (Robert, as Thomas Colleymoore), Jeff Mahoney (Trevor, as the lighting and sound operator), Stewart Evan Smith (Jonathan, as Charles Haversham), Sarah Morin (Denise, as Perkins), Liam Grimaldi (Max, as Cecil Haversham and Arthur the Gardener)

The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society is producing an old style British whodunit entitled The Murder at Haversham Manor but not quite up to the job. Everything in the arrangement of set and properties is awry which makes the cast of characters bounce around – dealing with unexpected falling parts of the set, missing props, stage doors that won’t open, and characters who get knocked out cold and can’t perform. There is a lighting and sound operator, Trevor (Jeff Mahoney), who cannot quite keep out of the action and seems hell-bent to find a lost Duran, Duran album, and a stage manager, Annie (Ceit Zweil), who gets a bit more roped into the action than she bargains for.

The plot of the embedded show, such as it is, is thus. Florence Colleymoore (Sarah Gazdowicz) is affianced to Charles Haversham (Stewart Evan Smith), who is found dead on his couch. Inspector Carter (Paul Melendy) and his assistant Perkins (Sarah Morin) are called in to investigate. The suspects are Cecil Haversham (Liam Grimaldi), Charles’ brother, Thomas Colleymoore (Mark Linehan), Florence’s brother, and, of course, Florence herself. Carter’s investigation proceeds with little help from any quarter. It does turn out that Cecil and Florence have been having an affair, which makes them both additionally suspect, and then Arthur the Gardener (Liam Grimaldi) shows up to add mystery, intrigue and a huge beard into the goings on.

As far as further errant facial hair goes, Inspector Carter’s stage moustache keeps falling off, so that he appears in the first act mostly with just half of it, and then, in the second act, with a moustache drawn on his face. But that represents only the very surface of the various antics. The set has a second stage which nearly collapses when a supporting column gets knocked out accidentally. And a fireplace mantle falls off, which makes some of the stage directions indicating objects to be put on the mantle impossible to be put there. Florence gets knocked out at one point, which then requires the stage manager, Annie (Ceit Zweil), to take her place, but she gets knocked out as well, so Perkins (Sarah Morin), Inspector Carter’s assistant, dives into to fill the gap. Get the picture? And, speaking of pictures, the portrait on the living room wall is supposed to be of a patriarch, but, in the play that goes wrong, it actually is of Celine Dion.

Needless to say, the stagecraft involved in managing this melee has to be masterful, and, in this production it most certainly is. The various pieces of the set collapse in just the right way at the right times and all of the props are expertly misplaced so that when a particular character is looking for a pen, they just find a set of keys. And so on. The collapsing second story of the set is artfully constructed so it sags just the right amount, enabling the characters upon it to grapple diagonally and hysterically.

As well, the choreography of the pratfalls and gestures is done to a T, so that all of the characters grimace and bend with all of the expected gestures of all the portrayed Britishers of certain types; the show is filled with great stumbles, trips, inversions, and one-two steps of all sorts, all brilliantly done.

Everyone shines in this show, which is a tribute to the expert direction by Tyler Rosati. They are all hilarious and they work together wonderfully well. And, to be sure, the stagecraft managed by all of the production people is timed perfectly and is first rate.

I have seen a couple of farces recently and neither one really got me to crack a smile, which made me worry that I had become farce-proof. But this show proved that fear wrong. I found myself laughing heartily at every turn, and found delight in all the portrayals and in the amazing array of intentional theatrical failures.

Overall: a delightfully rambunctious and very funny production, filled with great performances and expertly executed stagecraft.

– BADMan (aka Charles Munitz)