In 2008, three graduates of LAMDA, Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, founded Mischief Theatre with little more than a shared flat, a love of improvised comedy and a catalogue of personal disaster stories from the fringe. Four years later, drawing on those same disasters, they wrote The Play That Goes Wrong, premiering it to just four audience members at the Old Red Lion pub theatre in London. It transferred to the Duchess Theatre in 2014 and has never left.
Now the longest-running comedy in West End history, performed in over 50 countries, it is on its 13th cast. The play tells the story of the amateur group Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, while they attempt to stage a 1920s murder mystery called ‘Murder at Haversham Manor’. Important noting that the programme is filled with details that enriches the experience, such as character biographies, letters and the reveal of how they accidentally end up in the west end, a programme within a programme.
The show starts before the actual show starts. That is a gimmick I absolutely love. While the audience is settling down the cast is already setting the play in motion, asking if anyone has seen a dog that is supposed to be in the play within the play. Moments of laughter that ease the audience in. I always thought that once the first general laughter has come, the audience is less shy about laughing.
This way, when the play actually starts, we had already broken that seal. Very clever writing. For the actors, that is not an easy task: interacting with the audience and remaining in character while dismantling the fourth wall. This skilled cast mastered it. They remained serious and engaged while shattering that wall figuratively. The others would come down later.
Matt DiCarlo signs the direction of this cast. DiCarlo collaborated with Mischief Productions on several shows, including the debut of The Comedy About Spies in the West End in 2025. Whenever an actor, or in this case a full cast, takes over a role from another company, they face the task of making it the same show and yet still unique. To bring those characters to life inhabiting different bodies: that is the director’s task. To ensure that it happens while remaining loyal to the original intention. The creative team, and especially the technical team, did a fantastic job making this show safe for the actors and still enjoyable amid so many stunts.
Performing comedy is a skill. Add to that another layer of difficulty by making a play within a play, and comic timing becomes imperative. Audience laughter becomes the measure of success, and with a fourth wall already destroyed by the pre-show, the catastrophe is set in motion. This company was skilled and precise. Raphael Bushay and Joshua Lendon held control of the audience. Lendon’s character Max, who played Cecil in the play within the play, loved to please the audience, and we believed his love for attention and went along with the joke.
On the other side, Bushay’s Robert was serious and utterly invested in the play within the play, revealing his panic with extraordinary detail. At moments, his eyes were like a spotlight highlighting the chaos while the rest of him remained completely still. Those two had some of the best moments together on stage.
The whole company faced an intense physical task. Much of the comedy was revealed through physical action, and they did it brilliantly: climbing bookcases, holding props against the wall, stretching to create a telephone wire. Their sync was visible and joyful. Every actor was caught in a loop at some point, where someone accidentally delivers a line from the page before and together the cast has to get through to the next section of the text as though nothing happened.
Obviously, this had to happen in The Play That Goes Wrong, that internal moment of “Oh God” was written all over their faces, and it left the audience in stitches. Every loop revealed more of that inner panic, all held together by the skilful Alex Bird who played Spencer and the Butler.
Another memorable moment happened twice: Ruby Ablett and Kieron Michael’s characters, both technicians not used to audiences, found themselves enjoying being watched. The pleasure their characters discovered in that moment was infectious and seeing them reveal another layer was genuinely beautiful.
The Play That Goes Wrong does it right. Their 13th cast is a triumph. It takes our breath away with laughter and their stunt capabilities. The slapstick comedy is inclusive, unpretentious and democratic. The Play That Goes Wrong will keep going wrong for quite a while. It has a brilliant formula and it earns every laugh. The lovely Duchess Theatre is the perfect house for it: intimate enough to catch every detail, yet just far enough that you will not get burned or smashed, except by the audience’s rolling laughter. Some shows are built to last. This show was built to fall apart, and we love it for it.
NEED TO KNOW: The Play That Goes Wrong is booking until 3 Oct 2027
