Archived: The Play That Goes Wrong

London’s Olivier Award-winning theatre company Mischief Theatre is bringing its smash-hit comedy The Play That Goes Wrong to New Zealand for the first time from September.

With a host of awards for Best New Comedy to its credit, The Play That Goes Wrong actually appears to be doing something right for West End audiences, and now audiences here will get their chance to witness theatrical disaster when this hilarious masterpiece stumbles into town.

Buster Keaton inspired slapstick delivered with split-second timing and ambitious daring.
 

Described as Fawlty Towers meets Noises Off, The Play That Goes Wrong has been enjoying five-star reviews and is currently playing to packed houses in the West End, Australia and Broadway. 
 
The play introduces ‘The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society' which is attempting to put on a 1920s murder mystery, but as the title suggests, everything that can go wrong…does, as the accident-prone thespians battle on against all the odds to get to their final curtain call.
 
Co-written by Mischief Theatre company members Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields and directed by Mark Bell, The Play That Goes Wrong is a highly physical comedy packed with finely-tuned farce and Buster Keaton inspired slapstick, delivered with split-second timing and ambitious daring. The Play That Goes Wrong, which started its life at a London fringe venue with only four paying customers at the first performance, is now enjoying its third catastrophic year on the West End and has gone on to play to an audience of over a quarter of a million.
 
The Play That Goes Wrong got it absolutely right when it clinched a number of accolades including the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy 2015, BroadwayWorld UK Winner for Best New Play 2015 and WhatsOnStage Award Winner for Best New Comedy 2014.  The Play was also a highlight of the Royal Variety Performance in 2015.
 
Licensed to 33 countries, with productions playing in Melbourne, Tokyo, Paris, Budapest and soon to open in Rome, Warsaw, Shanghai, Cape Town, the cast stumbling its way to New Zealand will come direct from the UK tour.
 
Mischief Theatre was founded in 2008 by a group of graduates of The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and began as an improvised comedy group.  The company performs across the UK and internationally with improvised and original scripted work. This is Mischief's first New Zealand Tour and they look forward to Going Wrong, upside down, on the other side of the world.