StoryHouse Live, Chester – until Saturday 26 January 2020
Reviewed by Julie Noller
5*****
Following on from the success of Cornley Polytechnics production of The Play That Goes Wrong and their television production, Mischief Theatres latest show has steamrollered into Chester for it’s latest stop on it’s nationwide tour.
We saw some last minute cast changes that saw leads swap and understudies take leads, this in no way detracted from what is a hugely polished and what is an extreme gigglefest. As always Mischief Theatre bring to the stage a play that’s so bad it’s fantastic, amazing value for money; it’s a farce within a farce, every cliché you could imagine hits you in the face – you could almost tick off a spreadsheet of must include moments.
Peter Pan has just finished a run as StoryHouse Live’s Christmas production, how funny that Peter Pan Goes Wrong should follow it. Tom Babbage as Chris is a man having a meltdown, sinking further and further as he becrys this is not a pantomime, but we the audience encouraged by other cast members of course know differently, the more he shouted at us the louder we became. The audience were howling not just laughing there were people laughing out of control, loud squeals of delight which made us laugh all the more, it is after all so infectious.
As always you should arrive at your seat in plenty of time for if you wait until the last minute you may just miss the pre-show, as expected there is the case of the missing hammer. We the audience were all drafted in to help hook up an electric supply by passing the extension cable overhead, then there was poor Michael the audience member we were encouraged to sing Happy Birthday to, I’m still confuddled as to whether it was his birthday or not. All this pre-show interaction, works as a warm up, the audience know it’s ok to shout out once the main shows begins.
Poor Trevor (Ethan Moorhouse) is the stagehand who is drafted in to give the pre-show safety brief, swigging a bottle of beer we are informed of a plastic cup only policy, taking a selfie whilst on the phone … turn off mobiles and definitely no photography. The action, the stories, the absolute disasters come thick and fast. The cast are fantastic, incredibly polished and I noticed a format; wooden actor, stage fright, female lead loving the limelight, stage struck love forlornly want to be lead, lead actor a little too much in love with himself, older actor lovey with lots of recording problems intermixing all ticked off successfully.
Well done to Fred Gray who plays Max (the lovelorn, star struck role). Max plays Michael Darling, Mermaid and everyone’s favourite the Crocodile. Fred along with Christian James as Jonathan/Peter Pan stepped into their parts as a last minute change. So what should you expect? Action, noise, set malfunctions, stage props falling apart, paramedics, hilarious stories told with a straight face. It’s an A-Z of British humour. I along with many others can not wait for when Mischief Theatre returns to Chester in September with their latest play Grown Ups as announced by Tom Babbage (Chris).
Take yourself along to StoryHouse and chase those winter blues away. Laughter in this case really is the best medicine. I left wanting more, but fully in awe of a performance that had me crying and quite possibly the odd snort of laughter, absolutely brilliant.