By Stub Estey
“This show… is complicated, intense, and hysterically funny.” That statement by the play’s director, Scott Olson, gives as good a nutshell description as any I could come up with for what I saw on opening night at Fauquier Community Theatre’s latest production, The Play That Goes Wrong. Hysterical, indeed.
The storyline involves an acting troupe putting on a play, with the cast encountering riotous mishaps. The scheme of a “play within a play” was first presented by Thomas Kyd in The Spanish Tragedy, which opened in London in 1590. The concept was replicated in several Shakespearean plays and, more recently, in such plays as The Mousetrap, Noises Off, and The Producers.
The Play That Goes Wrong, by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields, opened in London in 2012, more than four centuries after Kyd’s play opened there. It collected numerous awards and had five national tours in the UK, and during its Broadway/off-Broadway runs, Huffington Post hailed it as “the funniest play Broadway has ever seen.”
It is difficult to describe the goings-on without giving too much away, but surprises abound in the fictional company’s performance of The Murder at Haversham Manor. The able cast at FCT comically manages to look as astonished as the audience when things go awry. It takes good acting to portray the characters taking it all in stride as if they were seeing each disaster for the first time, with spot-on comedic timing dished out with a British accent.
Who dunnit? The mystery is set in motion by Lloyd Rittiner as Charles, with Camden Gillespie portraying the femme fatale Florence, Ricardo Padilla as the butler, and W. Gregory Smith as Florence’s brother Thomas. Paul Thornton takes comedic command of the murder scene as the Inspector, while Garret Tucker joins the story as Charles’ hammy brother Cecil. Amid this roomful of comic characters, Esther Wells as the overly ambitious stage manager and Andrew Morin, playing the company’s practical joking “sound operator,” add extra hilarity to the mix.
Audiences will be impressed with the intricate and mobile set, designed by Jarret Baker with construction lead Steve Cooper. Together with lighting by Stacy King and sound effects by Drew Bader, those elements comprise three more characters in the show. The “stage hands” for the play within a play add to the fun through their silent appearances onstage whenever the situation calls for helpers to set things right or sweep things up.
Did I mention that there is a raging snowstorm outside Haversham Manor, which makes its appearance amusingly whenever the doors and windows are opened?
The Play That Goes Wrong plays through February 16, 2025 (Thursday, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm), presented by Fauquier Community Theatre, performing at Vint Hill Theater on the Green, 4225 Aiken Drive, Warrenton, VA. All tickets ($16 youth, $18 seniors, $20 adults) are for reserved seating and are beginning to sell out. Purchase tickets online or call the box office at 540-349–8760. For the performance on Valentine’s Day, Friday, February 14, patrons will be offered a complimentary gift to celebrate the special occasion.
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COVID Safety: Fauquier Community Theatre is following the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Virginia Department of Health. As such, we will not have any seating or distancing restrictions. Face coverings are optional. If you feel sick or are displaying any symptoms of COVID-19, or have been exposed to someone sick, please do not attend. The theater’s complete COVID Procedures are here.
This project was supported, in part, by the Virginia Commission for the Arts, which receives support from the Virginia General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Stub Estey is a retired business executive and local theater actor/musician/author in northern Virginia. His book Oxcart Gold Rush recounts the travels of a 19th-century ’49er who crossed the U.S. in an oxcart 71 years before the 1920s fictional setting of The Murder at Haversham Manor, the production portrayed in The Play That Goes Wrong.
The Play That Goes Wrong was written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields. The play is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service under license from Mischief Worldwide Ltd.