The Play That Goes Wrong

Murder. Betrayal. Affairs. Chaos; All are involved in Newburyport Theatre’s up-and-coming production, opening on November 16th, is the play-within-a-play, titled The Play That Goes Wrong. Sets are crashing, lighting is going wrong, props are switched, and The Cornley Drama Society is desperately trying to keep the production going. Here is a previewed insight into the theatre department's rendition of this play. 

On the night of his engagement party, Charles Haversham is murdered. Inspector Carter, comes to solve the mystery, and many other secrets are revealed in the process. Who can the characters trust? The Cornley Drama Society is putting on a play titled The Murder at Haversham Manor, and is hoping to have great success. Unfortunately for them, nothing goes right with their production. The director of Newburyport’s Theatre department, Mrs. Phillips remarks “the reason why I chose this play is because it is hands down the funniest play I’ve ever seen in my life. And I’ve been doing theater since I was 8 years old. I’ve never laughed so hard in a theater, and i thought to myself it was so funny when i saw this show in London, will this read as funny for the High School? Then as I was reading it, I was laughing so hard I couldn't catch my breath.” 

Lizzy Homer, who plays Christine, gives an insight into what goes on behind the scenes to prepare for showtime, “A lot of line memorization, and also blocking. We have a couple of fight scenes that need to be blocked, some people falling out of windows, and dragging bodies outside of the set. So it is a lot of choreographing in terms of action scenes, also behind the scenes a lot of laughs.” 

Declan Hochheiser, who plays Robert, jokes “Even though it's called the play that goes wrong, everything essentially has to go right for it to work. We have walls toppling down on us, doors breaking, and sword fights that could all be very dangerous if not done correctly. Though that’s the fun of it.” 

We sat down with Indigo Jerome, who does hair, makeup, and costumes for this play to see how this department is contributing to the overall success of the play, “It’s really a lot of just looking at other renditions of the production, and looking at your actors, and what would fit on them and what kind of fits their personality along with the characters personality.”

  To what costumes specifically we will see, Indigo shared “So it's kind of 1920s almost, it is definitely more formal because they are at an engagement party and stuff. Women are going to be wearing dresses, men are going to be wearing suits.” 

As for standout roles or people to look out for in this production, Mrs. Phillips states every role in this play is an important role: “Well the cool thing in this play is that there are 8 actors in the drama company trying to put on this production, and the play is titled the murder at Haversham Manor. In fact they are not all actors, there are 6 actors, a stage manager and a technician. Then there are an additional 5 people in the play that are the stage crew for that play. So in total it's a really small group of actors.” 

“Then at NHS you have the people working on the sound, lights, props, costumes, special effects, and things like that. So since it's a play within a play, every part is a highlighted part, even the stage crew because there are so many things falling down and going awry that they're trying to salvage it all.” 

 “I think the most fun part of the audition process is doing what we call in theater “taking risks” . It is when you are willing to be silly and make bold choices and put yourself out there. That’s where all the good stuff from comedy comes from. And everyone in the show is willing to do that and find freedom in it, which makes this really fun.”

This play is perfect for everyone, “Nothing is deep in this production. There’s no soul searching here, the only tears you might shed is if you are laughing so hard you cry. And I think that’s wonderful medicine to just enjoy yourself.” Says Mrs. Phillips. 

Come to Newburyport High School on November 16th at 7pm to see the opening of the show! It will also be shown the 17th, the 21st, and the 22nd all at 7pm and there is a matinee on the 23rd at 2pm. It is $10 for students, and $15 for all others. Follow @PortTheatre for updates and more information.

Eilish Nye and Martina Gutiérrez