CHRISTMAS CAROL GOES WRONG | UK TOUR @ FESTIVAL THEATRE, EDINBURGH
★★★
“Frenzied farce from Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society is great festive fun…”
Just when you thought the festive season was done and dusted another year, along come Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society bearing tidings of comfort, joy and a barrowload of Christmas chaos, as the backstage politics of the country’s most dysfunctional amateur theatre club are laid bare in the third of Mischief Theatre’s ‘Goes Wrong’ play series.
Introduced to theatre-goers in The Play That Goes Wrong in 2012, the players returning in Cornley’s calamitous production of Christmas Carol will now be familiar to many. There’s director/leading man Chris Bean (Scrooge), played with vainglorious aplomb by Daniel Fraser, blustering Robert (wannabe lead man), brilliantly played by Henry Lewis with a bellow of which Brian Blessed would be proud, and the permanently befuddled Dennis (Bob Cratchit), a show stealing turn from Jonathan Sayer.
Also back are Sandra (Narrator), Cornley’s never knowingly upstaged leading lady, a wonderfully extravagant performance from Ashley Tucker, the easily distracted Max (supporting actor), played by Matt Cavendish, overly eager stage manager and bit part player Annie, brightly brought to life by Nancy Zamit, and the acrophobic Jonathan (Ghost of Christmas Past), whose extreme fear of heights finds Greg Tannahill in fine form. Finally, there’s technical director Trevor, an awkward and aware Chris Leask. Together they are the best Cornley has to offer – all earnestly hopeful and hilariously deluded amateur thespians.
It’s the strength of this Mischief ensemble of actors that makes this frenzied farce a great night out no matter what the season or time of year.
The action follows Cornley’s attempt to stage Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol from audition process to opening night, via a production meeting where the revelation that the local paper’s lead reviewer is coming to see it sends the company into meltdown.
Christmas Carol Goes Wrong treds a well trodden path; word plays, physical comedy and comedic call backs all the order of the day in a laughter filled, if predictable, script that sees Lewis, Sayer and Shields sharing the writing credits. As accidents rain down on the company, lines are forgotten, scenery fails and petty jealousies rise to the fore, mayhem ensues as the cast desperately vie to win a rave review for their increasingly surreal delivery of the classic tale.
Real life director Max DiCarlo juggles the ‘play within a play’ and the conceit of ‘professionals playing amateurs playing Dickensian characters’ with a deft touch, ensuring the lines between each are clear are never blurred, while also displaying a keen eye for the absurd.
On Libby Todd’s cleverly imagined (if a tad anachronistic) set, highlights of the piece include an uproarious bedroom farce scene – quite literally; the arrival of all three ghosts, although Christmas Past and Christmas Yet to Come are arguably trumped by Lewis’ laugh out loud Christmas Present, a master-class in boisterous slapstick; and a Tiny Tim that, once seen, will never be forgotten. There’s even some perfectly played audience participation. Be prepared if you are in the front row.
If the formula used by Mischief Theatre to raise their laughs is there to be seen, it matters not, from Michael Green’s Art of Coarse Acting to ITV’s It’ll Be Alright on The Night, there’s nothing audiences enjoy more than the vicarious thrill of seeing something go wrong. On the whole, that’s the basic premise of all the ‘Goes Wrong’ plays and that some of the gags that do that are stretched a bit thin does become a niggle.
But less of the Bah Humbug! God bless them every one, Mischief Theatre knows how to make us laugh… and should you be curious to discover what part a box of Maltesers and Barbie’s Kitchen play in a 187-year-old tale, you’ll just have to head along to see the Cornley players in action.
Full tour details and tickets HERE
