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Inside THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG's Return to the Duchess Theatre!
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Oct 26, 2022
As the Olivier Award-winning comedy The Play That Goes Wrong finally returned to its West End home at the Duchess Theatre on Friday, we sent our very own @WestEndReporter Tom Hayden Millward down to meet two of the show's current cast members - Ellie Morris and Elan James - and chat about the play's undying longevity, actual onstage mishaps and which subjects they would like to see get the 'Goes Wrong' treatment in future.
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0:00
Hi, I'm Ellie Morris
0:01
Hello, I'm Ilan James. And you're watching Broadway World UK. Greetings and salutations
0:07
Tom Hayden Millwood here and not even a global pandemic can put an end to Mystery Theatre's Olivier Award-winning comedy
0:14
the play that goes wrong. Now, as performances resume, initially under social distancing guidelines
0:20
I've come to the Duchess Theatre to meet cast members, Ellie Morris and Ilan James
0:30
I met everybody at Lambda, so I joined the company then
0:44
I was really into improv, and they were doing Lights Camera Improvise, which is now Misted Movie Night
0:48
And so I did a couple of Edinburgh's with them while I was still training at Lambda. And then after that, I did, Peter Pan goes wrong in the West End
0:58
and then I did the comedy about a bank robbery I understood on that for a year
1:02
and then some more improv shows in the mix and then I did, we did the Christmas specials
1:08
Christmas Carol and Peter Pan goes wrong for the BBC and then I just have done this
1:14
play that goes wrong, yeah. Is comedy more challenging than drama? No, no it's not
1:23
It hurts more if it doesn't go right because you get an immediate response
1:27
That's what the difference is. So, but in terms of getting it right, it's not harder
1:33
It just that you get immediate feedback That what the difference is The play that goes wrong is a comedy
1:49
It's a kind of fast comedy. It centres around Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society
1:54
who are putting on the murder at Havishamana, which is a very serious murder mystery play
1:59
And it doesn't go right, essentially. They are ill-equipped. to perform the play
2:07
People don't know their lines. The set isn't made correctly or things like that
2:13
What they end up essentially being is like trapped in this show that they just want to get to the end of
2:19
So that's where the, I think that's where a lot of the comedy in the show lies is that they know it's gone wrong
2:25
The audience can see it's gone wrong, but they're so desperate to just finish the play
2:29
But they keep carrying on. They just want to get to the end and push through
2:32
That it's just like a snowball of, of errors and like clinging on
2:38
And that's, yeah, that's what the show's about. Gosh, yes, I think we had, when we were performing over Christmas
2:50
we did have a door handle that kept coming off. There's a lot of gags about the door that's kind of stuck, closed
2:56
and then the door, well, I'm not going to ruin it, but door, funny door. For me, personally, I've given my stage managers a fright a few times
3:05
because I can be a little bit over-excited with the stunts and just fall off things that I'm not supposed to fall off
3:15
But the handle did just keep coming off and so every time someone had to enter or exit from that door you would just have to kind of knock and hope that somebody on the other side would push it open for you So stuff like that
3:26
But I think the audience maybe didn't even notice that that was going wrong
3:29
But it's always quite fun. If it's not too disastrous, it's always quite fun for us to kind of encounter those difficulties
3:36
and play around with them. So we have the UK tour as well
3:45
of the play that goes wrong, which is going to be on at the Mali Theatre in Canterbury
3:49
starting on the 13th of July. So people should go and check that out
3:58
I think the reason why this play has stayed the longest is because it is a show about theatre
4:09
I think it's kind of a universal humour. It's very physical, very visual gag
4:15
but also just kind of that, you know, things going wrong, the endeavour to continue in the face of adversity
4:22
is a very kind of universal thing. This could actually just happen. And I think perhaps a lot of the crowd
4:29
that have been involved in theatre know, just as well as we do on stage
4:33
that things do go wrong. And there's that painful moment of realizing
4:37
being a rabbit in the headlights and then trying to get on with it
4:42
You want to see those characters kind of succeed, as much as they are failing
4:47
In that sense it's immersive, right? Because you're in the theatre with them. So maybe it's got that element to it
4:51
and you feel like part of the show more. That might be it
4:54
So if I was a writer given the opportunity to write a goes wrong show I would
5:11
I don't know. What would I write about? What goes wrong? Again, I don't know. That's really hard. They're quite good at covering a lot of the bases. What can go wrong
5:23
I mean the musical That's kind of something that maybe hasn't been done
5:29
So a musical that goes wrong American wrestling going wrong That's probably quite a good one actually
5:34
I don't know That's a hard question Yeah stunt-wise I think that'll be quite a fun show to do
5:38
Maybe I'll think about it some more So it seems that everything
5:48
Is continuing to go right For the play that goes wrong See you next time folks
5:53
on Broadway World UK. So yeah, we have the UK tour of the play that goes on
6:00
which is starting in Canterbury, in the Marlowe Theatre, on the 13th of August
6:06
Oh my God. That was a lot of information to remember in one go. But I don't know
6:13
It's hard to talk about what goes wrong, right? Ah. Well, I don't know
6:23
Wait, sorry, I cannot get that name wrong. We have to start again because that is, it's like a big, sorry
6:31
No, that's a hard one. It is really hard. Yeah, so we have the UK tour of, wait, what is it
6:37
I'm playing it as wrong. Sorry. Oh, yeah. Okay. Booh
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