“The Play That Goes Wrong” can feel less hilarious farce and more painful documentary.
Witnessing the dumpster fire that is the Cornley University Drama Society hits close to home for those who’ve ever been a part of an amateur drama production operating on a limited budget. Cue lines that don’t cue, improvising through a cast-member’s missed entrance and devastating head injuries that force a stage manager to turn to an understudy to save the show — sound familiar, thespians?
What works smartly in the play, running at San Jose Stage Company through Dec. 17 after a delay of more than a year, and with a mostly new cast, is how evenly both acts are structured, the first act setting up fine payoffs in the final frame. Director Kenneth Kelleher’s work is often terrific when it comes to the action. His ability to build tableaus requiring intricate timing fits divinely in a show of this style.
The issues of the play have been present in personal viewings of the show in New York, London and the Bay Area. Jokes can fall on the stale side, becoming predictable as the story moves along. Not every sight gag is a laugh riot, nor does every implausible situation pop with magnificence. The play is the kind of physical farce that often requires perfect execution, but thanks to sincere and earnest unity among the highly-skilled cast of eight, perfection isn’t necessary in order for enjoyment to be maximized.
The play kicks off with some hilarity built from wit. Society head Chris (Jonathan Rhys Williams) is tasked to inform the audience of some unfortunate budgetary constrictions that have had severe consequences for the titles of past productions. Think “James and the Giant Peach,” except with a more miniscule piece of fruit that eventually rots and leaves the show. But today is a new day, a smooth production awaits.
But does it? The play within the play is “The Murder at Haversham Manor,” a murder mystery that goes in some unfortunate directions. The smoking jacket-wearing Charles Haversham (Johnny Moreno) is a murder victim having issues staying murdered, constantly needing to find creative ways to portray his deadness while still hitting his mark.
The characters tasked with working through the murder scene are ready. Perkins (Keith Pinto) is a plastic-wigged butler with 80 years of service who can’t pronounce the words written on his hand. Max (Sean Okuniewicz) receives any and all oxygen needed via audience approval. Thomas Colleymore (Will Springhorn Jr) spends the bulk of the play sipping paint thinner while trying not to fall off a platform, while his tragic sister Florence (Maggie Mason) is a dazzling ingenue who seems as if she is paid by the concussion.
Any hot mess of a play needs to have two dedicated noble folk, i.e., the stage management team, who attempt to seal up the tiny iceberg piercing the Titanic. These include Taylor (Nick Mandracchia) who has absurd tasks like trying to find a missing dog needed for the second act (a payoff from Okuniewicz that is quite hilarious).
Every part his equal is Annie (Vivienne Truong) who handles backstage matters, except when she’s forced into duty thanks to yet another losing fight between Sandra’s head and a wooden door.
Williams moves away from his audience introduction and drives the action as Inspector Carter, the man getting to the bottom of a heinous killing. Multiple scenes with Carter and others offer different variants of hilarity and skill, including a moment when Perkins flubs the heck out of a line incessantly, sticking his comrades into a riotous death loop they can’t escape.
While the Inspector drives the bulk of the action, the show’s strength lies with the terrific ensemble cast, top to bottom, whose smug poshness as Brits that mug and prance incessantly is delightful. Their commitment to spitting sheer poppycock at every turn pays massive dividends in the final throes of the play, when Robert Pickering’s snazzy set design, replicating Broadway and London productions, and Steve Schoenbeck’s extremely precise sound work, insert themselves fully into the morass.
A case can be made that an unfinished set on opening night is one of the most dangerous places in the theater. In the case of the hapless lugs of the Conley University Dramatic Society, opening night indeed offers no respite from wood, metal and nails. The set seems hellbent on getting the last laugh through closing night as well.
David John Chávez is chair of the American Theatre Critics Association and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (‘22-‘23); @davidjchavez.
By Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, presented by San Jose Stage Company
Through: Dec. 17
Where: San Jose Stage, 490 S.1st St., San Jose
Tickets: $34-$74; www.thestage.org
