It is likely that most know of and may have seen the television show called The Goes Wrong Show so may be familiar with the style of this production.
Photos by Alastair Muir
The tale follows The Cornley Polytechnic Drama society production of Peter Pan. Upon entering the auditorium you are aware that what you are about to watch will not conform to what you may expect from a theatre production, the fourth wall being shattered even before the play starts.
The story of Peter Pan is told with lots of slapstick humor and raised peels of laughter from the audience. The actors work hard to prepare the audience for what they are watching and to develop audience participation.
The individual characters in the play are developed in a way that evokes pathos in their unfortunate situation, but not enough to stop the audience from barracking the show’s Producer (Tom Babbage) who cannot stand his work being labeled as pantomime. He maintains a straight face throughout the show, bar a slight moment of corpsing, whilst striving for it to be a perfect show. If it could go wrong then it seemed to in this wonderful production. The ability of the cast to improvise and work with the audience was spot-on and overcame any additional unscripted errors, which we would never have spotted anyway.
The costumes are brightly coloured and each character readily identified by how they look. This show is a visual treat of humor through the costume changes and designs. Phoebe Ellabani who plays Mrs Darling and Lisa, amongst others, provides a hilarious visual treat through her costume changes and styles. The set is very clever in its design and layout as it rotates to give three different sets that can easily be changed.
The humor varies from that of pantomime-esque and the ‘he’s behind you’ and ‘oh no it isn’t’, to slapstick humor and skillful play on words. At times I was laughing so hard that my tummy hurt! This is a fantastic evenings entertainment. I was crying with laughter and will definitely be going to watch again for a thoroughly enjoyable evening filled with constant laughter.
Peter Pan Goes Wrong is running at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking until 18th January 2020.
