Stage Rights' 'The Play That Goes Wrong': Wonderfully Chaotic and Entertaining

CONROE, TX -- Even before the play begins, you might notice little things. A playbill that depending on the way you open it, may or may not contain information about the play you came to see. Or is it? Someone may be looking for a lost dog, Waldo, which seems out of place, or you’ll see some equipment that you think should have been stowed away before the production begins. You might hear some English accents that, for some strange reason, don’t sound Texan. No, don’t adjust your television sets, you're in Montgomery County, all right. It's just a little bit of an amateurish small English village stage has landed at the Crighton Theatre in Conroe. In ‘The Play That Goes Wrong,’ written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields; Stage Right of Texas, starts off its 2024-2025 season with the ‘right’ foot, even though props, the set, and the actors themselves might be falling down in a ‘left’ footed fashion. If you are a perfectionist, you might want to have your therapist on speed dial, because multiple calls might be necessary even before the halfway point of the first act.

I once called ‘The Battle of Midway’ a comedy of errors, and I was hesitant even to lend a moniker to what ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ can possibly be labeled. Rube Goldberg comes closest to mind. His ‘Rube Goldberg Machine’ ideas, which have fascinated audiences since the late 1920s, have been laughfests, with their chain reaction of physical comedy to perform a simple task; and to me it perfectly suits TPTGW. It’s a murder mystery, and it does get solved in the end, but you have to go through a litany of RGM little steps (some unceasingly repeated to exhaustion), or the chain reactions, to get to the ‘whodunit.’ If you have lung issues due to laughter, bring your puffer; you're gonna need it. If you loathe loud noises, bring some ear plugs. If you detest the sight of falling objects, actors, or walls? Close your eyes. If you dislike odd smells, don’t sit next to anyone who had cabbage soup for dinner; or you may encounter a little smoke from the stage.

I loved the uniqueness of ‘The Play That Goes Wrong,’ with its play-within-a-play Agatha Christie vibe. Just for reference, I’ll only use the character names that are associated with the ‘Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society,’ and their presentation of ‘The Murder at Haversham Manor,’ When the action starts, Trevor Watson (Carlos Soto), CPDS’s lighting and sound engineer, nervously reads prepared text, the usual spiel about cell phones and photography plus a few other things, followed closely by TMatHM director Chris Bean (Sean K. Thompson), whose lack of confidence is apparent and sets the tone for the evening. I loved the announcement of the new season of CPDS plays with titles that are strangely similar, but due to backstory budgetary concerns have off sounding names, like ‘Cat.’ In the playbill you will see ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Vending Machine.’ Mmm? Chris reveals that TMatHM is his directorial debut, and compares the 16 people in attendance to watch the play as about the same numbers of attendees to a ‘Hamilton.’ Even before Chris’s welcome, the perfectly prepared set starts its disintegration with the mantelpiece falling to the stage floor, before being rushed offstage accompanied with confusion by the players.

The entrance of Charles Haversham (Stephen Sampson, who reminds me of a young Marlon Wayans) is brilliant with his missed cue, having already supposed to be dead on a one arm wedding sofa. He is forced to move across the floor under ‘stage blackout’ conditions. His body lifeless, with each flash of light, inching closer to his destination, until Charles’ body finally settles on the sofa. Surprisingly, dead, murdered!! Like it should have started from the beginning. Director Thompson’s genius move by utilizing Sampson’s physical comedy ability, makes an already funny play even more hilarious with perfectly executed slapstickish moves; that in most other productions would simply have started with Charles already murdered on the sofa.

In comes Haversham’s fiancé Florence Colleymore (Lauren Mulacek), and her brother Thomas (Jonathan Rozas), along with the hapless butler, Perkins (Bain Beason), all shocked at the sight. Charles’ brother Cecil (Ara Hollyday) joins later, along with Inspector Carter (Sean K. Thompson again), who rounds out the cast for the moment. What ensues is a masterpiece of farcical silliness. A great distractor from the everyday seriousness of our own peculiar lives. There is so much going on upon the stage, at the same time in most cases, that its creativity lies in the confusion of the CDPS actors, drawing laughter from the real audience, of which players from any theatre company thrives on. We all soon forget about the overall plot, awaiting the next debacle from the inept CPDS actors, and coupled with the set falling apart, the actors have to be creative in keeping the concocted intentions of the play-within-a-play rolling along.

Ara Hollyday’s Cecil, is an audience darling, and thrives on his newfound stage fame, taking out of character bows at every opportune moment. Hollyday’s character is also very much involved in the psychical comedy. The same goes for Lauren Mulacek’s Florence. Her chicken-with-its-head-cut-off hysterical outburst is marvelously over-the-top, and ever so entertaining. Both Hollyday’s and Mulacek’s physicality in their characters’ affair (that didn’t come out right, did it?), as well as their individual monologues, garnered great applause. Cecil takes another bow.

Jonathan Rozas’ Thomas Colleymore, and Bain Beason’s Perkins, have hilarious moments as well. The drinks that Perkins serves are so vile that virtually everyone spits it out with disgust. Beason perfectly captures Perkins’ incompetence, as well as his aged decrepit persona. The removal of Charles Haversham’s body by Thomas and Perkins to determine the cause of death by Inspector Carter is pure gold. Just getting Charles’ body to the stretcher, has the very much alive actor given cause for concern, as his body is pushed off the sofa. When the stretcher is lifted, the body remains in place, but the players are forced to take the bars with an invisible body (and no canvas) to an upper part of the stage for Carter’s review. Sampson’s character later moves himself off stage using the canvas as a way to shield his view from the audience, like he’s not there. Again, his movements highlight his physical comedy ability, and the laughs just keep coming. The inspection of an invisible body by Carter is superb, and takes place on a platform that unsafely fits three players when it is not even secured for one. A support is later knocked out, causing the platform to teeter. That happens as we come to find out of the affair between Florence and Cecil, who while in passionate embraces are constantly interrupted by others, then they are broken up by Carter for his interviews.

Florence is accidently knocked out on stage when Thomas opens a door, and so begins the odyssey of the replacement Florences,’ with ‘Flo 2,’ played by totally unprepared stage manager Annie Twilloil (Sherry Rozas), while the uproariously funny attempt to remove ‘Flo 1’ through a window by other cast members and stagehands takes place. ‘Flo 3,’ after of course Flo 2 gets knocked out, turns out to be Trevor Watson, whose Flo 3 character has to pretend kiss with Cecil, which is slapstickishly funny. Each Florence has their hysterical moments, which get progressively worse with Flo’s 2 and 3, but are equally as entertaining. When Flo 3 gets knocked out, Flo’s 1 and 2 fight, both returned to consciousness, fight each other to be the last Florence standing.

There isn’t enough space to describe every hilarious moment. But be assured, you will be entertained to the utmost. The set that looked so pristine at the beginning of the play is systematically destroyed, and even IRL, the set did its part in taking out the lead actor, causing TPTGW director Thompson to step into the role of TMatHM’s Inspector Carter and multiple crew positions. Many thanks go to set designer John Barton, in taming the shrew of a set. Sound Engineers Heather and Kaleb Webb, as well as Lighting Engineer Robert Bowlin were crucial to the success of the production. The Stage Right stagehands deserve just as much credit as the actors, seeing as they played their part in the behind the scenes set destruction while keeping the actors as safe as possible. Yet, the physical acting does not completely stop the bumps and bruises that come with a performance. The sword fight scene between Thomas and Cecil is hilarious with dwindling armaments and a facial wardrobe malfunction, and leads to the death of Cecil off-stage, but he returns to the stage for his funny passing from this Earth scene. But he soon returns as a new character with a dog, and more bows.

‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ is a wonderful disaster, and makes for great entertainment. I highly recommend it. Director Sean Thompson’s calamitous vision has paid off, and the audience responded with great enthusiasm. You’ll even love the little Buster Keaton homage at the end.

See you at the Crighton Theatre!

‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ runs at the Crighton Theatre until September 22nd. www.stage-right.org or 936-441-7469.

Ruben can be reached at: ruben@montgomerycountynews.net