The Play That Goes Wrong

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

When the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society takes the Spencer Theatre stage to perform the supposedly elegant 1920s murder mystery The Murder at Haversham Manor, their production goes spectacularly off the rails. Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, The Play That Goes Wrong turns theatrical disaster into a high-wire feat of physical comedy as amateur performers battle collapsing scenery, uncooperative furniture and a corpse who refuses to stay convincingly dead.

The brilliance lies in watching these determined characters cling to their dignity even as everything around them falls apart. Every desperate attempt to salvage the scene only digs the hole deeper, and their commitment to finishing what they started becomes both heroic and hilarious. The actors play earnest, often misguided performers who believe absolutely in their whodunit, which makes each new catastrophe land harder.

You get two shows at once: the genteel manor-house mystery they're trying to stage and the escalating farce that actually unfolds. Lines go missing. Props vanish. The set develops a mind of its own. As the Cornley players scramble to preserve even a shred of their production, the gap between their theatrical ambitions and chaotic reality becomes the real entertainment.

Stuart Carden directs Kansas City Repertory Theatre's production, bringing this award-winning comedy to Kansas City audiences who appreciate precision-engineered mayhem and characters who never stop trying. Grab your tickets and watch ambition meet absurdity at the Spencer Theatre.