‘The Play that Goes Wrong’ will have you laughing
Careless mistakes, embarrassing blunders, forgotten lines, an unconscious leading lady, a word mangling butler, a corpse that can’t play dead and a set that falls apart are a few of the mishaps that make for “The Play that Goes Wrong” presented by the Footlight Players.
“It is one of the funniest plays I have ever seen. It is a cross between Monty Python and Sherlock Holmes,” Director Shane Pyle said. “It is a very physically demanding play, a very complicated play as far as the set goes. As a director, it is a beast. They don’t get harder to direct than this. I made my way back to directing plays at the Footlight Players after being away for about 10 years. Of course, I choose the hardest one in the book. This is my 14th production there. For this production we have an assistant director Kathy Huffman due to the complexity of this play. Kudos to her for keeping me straight. This is a play that needs two sets of eyes at all times. Patty Wherley is the producer.”
The play revolves around a group of amateur actors who try to put on a murder mystery and everything that could go wrong does go wrong. You’ve got a leading actress who gets knocked unconscious, a dead body that can’t play dead, a set that falls apart at the most inopportune times, an actor who can’t remember his lines at all and a stage manager who has been forced on stage against her will to fill in for a part. It all together brings down the house in laughter.
“I have a very talented group of individuals who have been working on this since December which is a much longer rehearsal for a usual play. Due to the complexity, we added another five weeks of rehearsal,” Pyle said.
The play was originally introduced in England in 2012 by three actors/writers Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, and Jonathan Sayer. It won the best new comedy in 2015 and was seen by noted movie director JJ Abrams who loved it so much he brought it to Broadway, where it won a host of other awards.
“Also, this play would not happen without the dedication of the backstage crew,” Pyle said. “The crew is very large compared to our usual plays. We have about 12 people backstage making everything work. It is funny, so it will definitely be worth the price of admission. The actors are excited, they show up on time ready to go to work.”
Ryan Addom plays Jonathan the corpse. “He tries to keep it together throughout the whole thing but with everything happening he just messes up his part,” Addom said. “He is trying to be serious; he is supposed to be dead.”
Addom just moved to Coshocton last summer and this is his first part in a play. “One of the reasons he chose Coshocton was because of opportunities here to do theater,” he said. “This is my first show. I think I will be alright but at that time when I see all the people, I think I might be a little nervous. The cast is there for support. I’ll do it again hopefully because in the future I plan to go to college to be a filmmaker.”
Annie Bosson plays Sandra, the only female lead and she is an absolute diva. “She thinks she knows best and that she is the best,” Bosson said. “This is her one stop shop to Broadway and she gets frustrated with her cast mates, absolutely. She thinks she is perfect, and she is definitely not, she overacts, she vamps, but everyone in the play is a comical character. We have so much fun together, we all play off each other and you never know what you’re going to get. It’s a lot of fun to bring out my inner diva side.”
Bosson has been with Triple Locks since she was about 10 years old. Her first play was “The Jungle Book Junior.” This is her first show with an adult cast. “I had no idea that I would love theater and want to be involved in it for the rest of my life,” Bosson said. “You make good friends, and it is such a small cast that you bond with everybody. This play is so funny, you are going to laugh the entire time.”
Shelly Lillibridge has directed 13 of the children’s productions and been doing theater here since the 80s. “Treva is the light and sound man/woman,” she said. “The part can be played by a boy or a girl. Trevor if it’s a man and Treva if it’s a girl. I am in the tech box pretending to do the sound and lighting. When everything goes wrong Treva steps in to try to help and it’s a fiasco, actually. Treva is getting paid, and the rest are community actors, so Treva doesn’t really care that they are bombing it. Treva rolls her eyes a lot. She likes to be on her phone and occasionally glances over to see where they’re at and fix it or not. Things go off when they are not supposed to, but Treva doesn’t really care if they screw up. Our set has collapsible parts and that’s where that timing comes in. Timing is crucial in this play. It is probably the longest practice I have ever done for this play.”
David Wickham’s part is the butler. “This is a play within a play, so I actually play two parts,” he said. “I portray Dennis, but he is portraying the butler who is Perkins. The play is about a company of actors depicting the murder at Haversham Manor. Many things are happening throughout the play that are bumps in the road. We tend to have those things during community theater. Sometimes the audience knows something is up and sometimes they don’t. This play is from start to finish full of mishaps, mistakes, and problems that the cast is unfortunately, uncomfortably, dealing with onstage. As the play goes on, we are trying to keep in character and keep within the story. Character flaws either in the actor or the character start to come out. Even the set itself, the props, the furniture, the backdrop start to become part of the story whether we want them to or not. This is one of those plays that everybody wants to see.”
Cast members includes Ryan Addom, Annie Bosson, Leonard Hayhurst, Dave Osso, Shelley Lillibridge, Tristen Pulley, Quinn Wherley, and Dave Wickham.
The play runs Friday and Saturday, March 17, 18, 24, 25, 31 and April 1st at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 26 at 2:30 p.m. Call the Box Office at 740-622-2959 or go to footlightplayers.com.
“I encourage people to buy tickets early. I am projecting that this is going to be one of our shows that sells out quickly. Don’t wait to get tickets. The rest of the season is also really good,” Pyle said. “We’ve got some great plays coming up. It’s not too late to get a membership for the 2023 year.”
Category: Arts & Entertainment
