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BrumHour is invited to review productions at The Alexandra throughout the year.
By Julie Wallis
Peter Pan Goes Wrong at
The Alexandra
Mischief Theatre proudly presents Peter Pan Goes Wrong. Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields directed by Adam Megiddo.
The Alexandra plays host to the most unfortunate and unforgettable cast, in the guise of fictitious Cornley polytechnic drama group, hilarity is guaranteed as everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.
Slapstick at its finest you will giggle as the Darling ‘children’ overact, or worse, fail to act at all and rely on some incredibly obvious prompts. You will gasp at daring stunts as the understudy to PeterPan dangles helplessly from a high wire and you’ll clap and cheer on Max as the hapless lovelorn crocodile.
Peter Pan Goes Wrong is the story of a play ‘Peter Pan’ being put on by Cornley Polytechnic drama group. Of course, as the title suggests, lots goes wrong for them but then there is also the underlying story of Max (Tom Babbage) who is secretly in love with Sandra, Sandra is playing Wendy Darling and is in turn played by Katy Daghorn. It sounds complicated but it’s not.
With its usual impeccable timing, the Goes Wrong plays are a phenomenon all of their own. Last night was the usual mixture of great comic timing, magnificent stunts and humour for the whole family. There is nothing bawdy or brash, it’s just silliness done in the best possible taste.
The cast really were magnificent and I really appreciated Phoebe Ellabani as Annie, playing the parts of Mrs Darling, Lisa the housekeeper, Tinkerbelle and Tiger Lily. Her quick changes were brilliant, but her missed changes even funnier. I don’t want to spoil the performance for people as yet to see it so I am not going into details.
I also loved Francis who plays the narrator and Cecco as played by Patrick Warner, just for the sheer frustration he conveys as things are going progressively from bad to worse.
With way too many stand out scenes for me to mention, this performance really is a laugh a minute guaranteed, but the underwater scene with the luminescent fish was both charming and of course very, very funny.
The turntable stage works well and is in itself a useful prop for some hilarious scenes.
I’m just sorry that my simple words can not truly convey the clever way this show makes so much comedy out of regular scenarios.
There’s lots of audience participation, especially when Captain Hook (George Haynes) is trying his best to convince the audience that this is not a pantomime. “This is not a pantomime”……..to which the audience replied, “oh yes it is!”
“Stop laughing” proclaims poor Captain Hook. which of course brings the house down with uproarious laughter.
I don’t think there were many moments when the audience was not laughing. Peter Pan Goes Wrong is one of the funniest plays I’ve seen. Although it does use a lot of the gags from the original Play that Goes Wrong, it was still every bit as funny and fresh the second time around. In fact, it’s so funny, I’m booking tickets to see this again tomorrow.
Even the program is funny, with its in Memorium page dedicated to the crocodile that had been imported just for this show.
There is so much I could say, but if I do it will spoil it for anyone waiting to see it. All I can say it, please see this if you can. The lady in front of me said her jaw ached from laughing and isn’t that something we all need. There’s no such thing as too funny, but if there was, Peter Pan Goes Wrong would win the accolades as play that’s too funny.
Peter Pan Goes Wrong is at The Alexandra until 22nd February. Book tickets with BrumHour’s affiliate link >> HERE <<.
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