From November 7 to 9, Ayala Theater presented a refreshingly unique show that embraced all things deemed disastrous on stage. This fall’s production, “The Play That Goes Wrong,” or alternatively known as, “The Murder at Haversham Manor,” is a show within a show, following the Cornley Drama Society’s chaotic attempt at performing a murder mystery at Haversham Manor—where anything that can go wrong does. From collapsing sets to missed cues, this play promised an enjoyable experience from start to finish.
“The actors have been training for months to kind of toe the line between doing an actual production and also performing purposely bad to match the theme,” Stagecraft Club Co-President Jasmine Houde (12) said.
For many actors and actresses, this means paying extra attention to keeping the tensions and familiarizing themselves with the chaotic nature of the show.
“[The most challenging part is] the blocking that goes on between my co-star, Karly Welsh, where we are both fighting,” actress Janelle Medina (12) playing as Sandra Wilkinson said. “It’s hard to coordinate [because we have to] make sure that everything works out so no one gets hurt.”
The theater production has been relying on fundraising activities, such as cookie sales, to support the drama and stagecraft clubs, while ticket sales and concessions cover production costs. Since the district does not fund the program, many times they have to rely on ticket sales and being creative with their budgets.
“We have done shows where we’ve paid $5,000 just for the rights, so that we have the company’s authorization to do the show, and then we’ve done shows where it’s been less than 500 to do the show, whereas this one, it was less than $1500,” theater teacher Madeleine Sherratt said.
Coming shortly after Halloween, this production shared many similarities with past production “Clue,” another murder mystery comedy that was well-received by audiences. This year’s production is different with its charms and stand deviated from their recent shows like “Mamma Mia!” and “Peter Pan.”
“This show is probably one of the most complicated that we’ve ever done because the premise of the show is a live performance on stage goes wrong,” Sherratt said. “I think that the vast majority of the people coming to see the show don’t know that it’s supposed to go wrong, but the way the play is written, they’ll be in on the jokes pretty quickly.”
Announced as an overall success, efforts from the crew members, actors, and directors have finally paid off.
*CORRECTION: In a previous iteration of this article, Jasmine Houde (12) was miscorrectly cited as the Theater Club president. Houde is actually the Stagecraft Club co-president.
