Any fan of the ‘Goes Wrong‘ productions will know exactly what you’re in for when you go see one of their shows. What I wasn’t prepared for last night at the opening of PETER PAN GOES WRONG at the Wales Millennium Centre, was the sheer number of on-stage mishaps.
Just in case you’re not familiar with Mischief Theatre, the company who produce these shows, is that these guys know exactly what they’re doing in the world of getting it wrong. Since they began around ten years ago they’ve turned out a series of productions, both live and on TV, with incredible success. The premise for most of them is simple, the execution however, is slick, beautifully choreographed and of course, incredibly funny.
Before we go any further let’s bring you our feature from last night. We got reaction from the audience and caught up with some of the cast members, who occasionally stayed in character – yes Jack, we mean you. The running gag through the show is that it isn’t a pantomime, despite the fact we in the audience treat it like one…..
I’ll try to keep this review as spoiler free as possible, although to be honest, the joy of this show, and indeed any of the Goes Wrong titles, is that you get a sense of what is likely to happen long before it goes wrong, if you see a picture on stage, there’s a fair chance something is likely to happen to it. Peter Pan is also a show which is full of comic surprises.
It begins before we see any stage action with some audience interaction, take a look at some footage on our Instagram page HERE. a
This is far more than the obligatory funny ‘turn your phone off’ routine. I recommend you get into your seat as soon as the auditorium doors open. The action will happen for a good ten minutes prior to things kicking off on stage. Once the play begins, it all feels very familiar. The classic JM Barrie tale about Wendy, John and Michael’s trip to Neverland is all there, just not as we’ve ever seen it before.
The ‘Cornley Drama Society‘ are staging a production of Peter Pan, an amateur drama group filled with good intentions but sadly lacking in any real stage skills and talent. What we get is an ever building show filled with chaos, disaster, gags and slapstick and a comedy feast which will leave you with a pain in your side from laughing.
I feel I need again to qualify that it’s the Cornley Society who are pretty rubbish on stage, the actors who play them are fantastic. It takes a hell of a lot of talent to get things this wrong, in fact more skill than it takes to get it right, as JAKE BURGUM who plays the role of stage hand Trevor told us recently. Watch our interview with Jake HERE.
Jake is from South Wales which is how his version of Trevor is portrayed, much to the delight of his home audience. He opens the show in a slightly tipsy manner and proceeds to come into the audience disrupting a slightly bemused crowd – it is really great fun, and don’t be afraid to interact with the cast, they love it too.
The show is co-written by Mischief’s celebrated writing trio, Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, and they have set the actors an incredible challenge. The physical comedy, packed with farce and slapstick, is delivered with split-second timing and more than a little daring. Some of the stunts come close to being lethal.
Case in point is the Cornley company stage manager and set designer Annie (JAMIE BIRKETT). She takes on a few roles, as do most of the cast, it being a play within a play, and Tinkerbell is definitely her nemesis. She has a series of quick-change costume moments, which don’t always go to plan, one of them sees her ‘Tink‘ outfit plugged into the mains electricity, with shocking consequences – enough said I think.
Peter Pan is played by Cornley’s Jonathan Harris (GARETH TEMPEST) and to say he is egotistical would be an understatement. It is his vanity however which makes him so annoyingly funny. Peter spends a lot of time flying through the air with as much grace and elegance as his very unlike Pan green costume. I’m sure my Nan knitted something similar when I was a kid.
Gareth is terrific as both Jonathan and Peter and does a brilliant job of annoying the on stage crew, to the point where they have a hand in his disastrous flying routines.
This is very much an ensemble piece with every member of the cast coming together in perfect organised chaos. The comedy isn’t alway physical, although there is a lot of falling, crashing and mid-air mishaps.
CLARK DEVLIN who plays Dennis and Smee has to wear his headset because he can’t remember any of his lines. Inevitably, that all goes wrong and he frequently passes on stage directions for us all to hear. With some of the in ear chatter we all get to share some very funny moments when it ‘goes wrong’ as he begins to relay stage directions and private crew conversations. The reactions of the other performers, are priceless, proving you don’t always need to rely on stage stunts for the big laughs. THEO TOKSVIG-STEWART as Max and CIARA MORRIS as Sandra are particularly good in this respect.
The rest of the cast are all equally funny. JACK MICHAEL STACEY is Chris and Captain Hook. Jack comes in for a lot of audience ribbing, which will vary each performance depending on what you guys throw back at him. MATTHEW HOWELL is Robert and Nana the Dog and makes a mighty fine comic canine, the way he manoeuvres the dog costume in the doorway is one of those side-splitting moments I mentioned.
Francis is the narrator of the story played by JEAN-LUKE WORRELL and is particularly good at missing his cue and not being able to negotiate the set. He also has a mighty fine singing voice which comes into its own at one point. Then there’s ROSEMARIE AKWAFO as Lucy, a player with incredible stage fright but who garners support from us in the audience who cheer her through each of her lines.
Those of us who have enjoyed Mischief on stage before know exactly what we are in for, and they deliver by the bucketload here. If you’ve never seen one of the Goes Wrong productions then Peter Pan is a really good place to start. You’ll see the most professionally gifted company of performers limp, crash, stumble and fall through two hours of non-stop fun.
As I said earlier, to get this so wrong, takes one very talented group of people, which made it more special that the entire company, including the backstage crew, took a very deserved bow at last nights performance.
The show is something very special and one you can happily take every member of your family group along too. The kids in the audience loved it as much as the older big kids and there isn’t a moment in the performance which will leave feeling uncomfortable with the youngsters sat with you.
They may get it wrong on stage but everything about this show is so right and if we awarded stars, five of them would be shining bright for Peter Pan to fly to.
PETER PAN GOES WRONG is at the Wales Millennium Centre through to Saturday 27th January. Performances are at 7:30pm with a 2:30pm matinee on Thursday and Saturday. Tickets are from £16.50, offers for members, groups, Under 16s, students. For more details, and to get yours, go HERE.
Age guidance 8+ (no under 2s)
