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Adam Meggido and Mischief Theatre deliver another well-produced farce with more visual gags than you can shake a hook at.
Peter Pan Goes Wrong is the second incarnation in the Goes Wrong franchise. Mischief Theatre first made a name for themselves with their Olivier Award winning debut, The Play That Goes Wrong, and has since branched out into variety performance with Penn and Teller collaboration, Magic Goes Wrong, as well as transitioning to television with The Goes Wrong Show on BBC. With the meta, original play proving a hit with critics and audience alike, Mischief Theatre seem to have found a winning formula here, capable of translating into any medium or genre.
So, the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society is back and now attempting to stage JM Barrie’s much-loved story. We meet them on opening night with a 20 minute pre-show that sees mad capers from ‘stage managers’ nearly throttling audience members with electrical wire to star creatives accidentally singing Happy Birthday to the wrong patron. It’s all a bit panto (despite the direc-tor’s increasingly furious declarations to the contrary) but the audience are loving it.
After a brief welcome from (‘co-‘!) directors to slip in bit of context (played with a hint of Monty Python by Connor Crawford and Oliver Senton), the show begins in the Darlings’ bedroom as the narrator (Patrick Warner) introduces us to the family. Katie Daghorn is great as Wendy, all her movements and speech flirty and exaggerated in try-hard, am-dram affectation. Phoebe Ellabani is equally as humorous as her mother, Mrs Darling, who suffers a wardrobe malfunction during her quick-change. The comedy continues with classic jokes like wall hooks being painted on, and props being misplaced. There are also some jokes which are a bit on the nose, such as John (an adequate Romayne Andrews) having his lines fed to him via radio headphones, but also some which are genuinely laugh-out-loud and unexpected like when the Darling children’s 3-tiered bunk bed suddenly collapses onto the next sibling below.
The play has a difficult job of not only telling the story of Peter Pan, but also the story of the ‘actors’ and ‘creatives’ behind it. As we are not privileged to see anything that would not play out on the actual stage such as rehearsals or dressing room scenes, information is fed to us through devices like microphones being left on backstage (useful, but lazy when consistently relied on) or having characters use stage whispers or break character. The story threads include Tootles (Georgia Bradley) overcoming her stage fright, the feud between warring directors, and the show’s underdog narrative of Michael/ The Crocodile (sympathetically played by Tom Babbage) finally winning over Wendy. This all culminates in a very clever use of Simon Scullion’s set design – the revolving stage with three separate sets is stuck on constant, revealing more antics and backstage drama. There are literal sparks flying, medics being strangled, Peter copping off with Tinkerbell, and a wheelchair-bound Tootles rolling wildly up and down a malfunctioning pirate ship. In true Goes Wrong style, this climax is organised chaos and though probably an absolute nightmare for director Adam Meggido to choreograph, it’s ultimately an absolute triumph.
If you’re willing to fork out for a programme, you’ll see another layer of storytelling - a spoof programme featuring bad cast photos, Cornley Productions’ inauspicious upcoming shows, and an advert seeking a short notice Flying Operator - foreshadowing a hilarious gag where a rag-doll-Peter is chucked down from the rafters. The fake programme is the perfect way to cement the idea that the play we’re watching is the actual play and not a play within a play. But the premise could have been pushed further by utilising the whole theatre space. Though there are some shenanigans in the stalls, the front sides flanking the stage are unused (unlike in previous straight production of Peter Pan) as are all the auditorium doors. To really add a believability, real stewards, or just their uniforms, could have been used during intervals .This offstage action then allows more freedom to further the dynamics of characters without having to act as if always in performance on stage.
Despite a safe style, Peter Pan Goes Wrong is meticulously choreographed, well-acted, and professionally produced. This is well and truly a farce, and in true form, is slapstick and often repetitive, and while not really my cup of tea, the audience were in absolute hysterics. Critics might sniff (sorry!) but if this were the Toronto Film Festival, it would definitely have won the People’s Choice Award.
Peter Pan Goes Wrong tours until 29th February.
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