The Play That Goes Wrong

The Play That Goes Wrong at Spencer Theatre At Kansas City Repertory Theatre

When someone trips over a corpse that won't stop breathing, do you help the show recover or savor the unraveling? The Play That Goes Wrong invites you to do both as the hapless Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society tackles a 1920s murder mystery called The Murder at Haversham Manor at Kansas City Repertory Theatre's Spencer Theatre.

Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, this physical comedy thrives on watching determined amateur characters fight to save a production that collapses around them. The premise is simple: imagine performers convinced they can deliver dignified intrigue, then watch everything from the set to their memories betray them. Props disappear. Furniture refuses to cooperate. The victim can't stay convincingly dead. Yet the fictional troupe soldiers on, and their scramble to maintain composure becomes funnier than any scripted punchline.

What makes the evening work is its double pleasure. You're watching a classic whodunit unfold—manor house, suspects, secrets—while simultaneously enjoying the farce that destroys the mystery around it. Every missed line and unstable platform peels back another layer of theatrical pretense, and the contrast between the actors' grave intentions and their spiraling disasters creates the comedy.

Stuart Carden directs this production, bringing the meticulously scripted chaos to Kansas City. If you've ever wondered what happens when ambition meets incompetence onstage, grab a ticket and find out.