It’s called The Play That Goes Wrong – and delivers on its promises

1 week ago 4

By Cameron Woodhead and Tony Way

September 4, 2025 — 1.44pm

THEATRE
The Play That Goes Wrong ★★★
Athenaeum Theatre, until September 28

Comedy that playfully deprecates the artifice of theatre, and the foibles of those involved in it, has been around since Aristophanes; from the mechanicals in A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Michael Frayn’s backstage farce Noises Off, the precarity of live performance remains a popular source of merriment.

The Play That Goes Wrong exists purely to entertain.

Few plays accumulate onstage bloopers with such frenetic absurdity as The Play That Goes Wrong, however, and this commercial farce is a hoot partly due to its purity – there’s absolutely nothing high-minded on offer; it exists purely to entertain.

An am-dram production of The Murder at Haversham Manor is the ill-fated show we’re set to see: a commercial murder mystery (a la Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap) in an English manor house.

The deceased, one Charles Haversham, appears to have been murdered in his study. Naturally, the manor is bustling with suspects – Charles’ unstable fiancee Florence, her jealous brother Thomas, Charles’ rakish brother Cecil, and the butler Perkins among them.

Inspector Carter has his own secrets, but he must solve the locked-room mystery before the killer strikes again.

You’d have to be miserable indeed not to laugh aloud at the ridiculousness of it all.

He’s also up against a badly constructed set which, despite emergency repairs from the stage manager, seems hell-bent on maiming or mangling every actor in the show before interval.

While this fictitious acting troupe is obviously under-resourced and under-skilled (the director reminds us of their season of Chekhov’s Two Sisters, and a slimmed-down adaptation of Roald Dahl called James and the Peach)m what the show lacks in production values and acting ability, it makes up for in rank enthusiasm.

These thesps have a fanatical devotion to the idea that the show must go on, even when absolutely nothing’s all right on the night, and the plot plays second fiddle to an endlessly enjoyable parade of pratfalls and visual gags, highly choreographed slapstick, and revolving door antics. It’s terrific fun.

I last saw The Play That Goes Wrong in 2017 and there’s indeed room to tighten the screws in this production. Farce is a very technical form, demanding immense discipline and meticulous timing from its performers, and there are a couple of flourishes that don’t quite work as intended.

No doubt these will be finessed as the season progresses, and each performance has at least a few priceless moments.

For all its onstage mayhem and falling debris, The Play That Goes Wrong strikes me as an indestructible comedy, and you’d have to be miserable indeed not to laugh aloud at the ridiculousness of it all.
Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead

MUSIC
Mahlerfest | Mahler 4 and 5 ★★★★★
Australian World Orchestra, Hamer Hall, September 3

Gathering some of the finest Australian players from around the globe, this year the Australian World Orchestra shed a probing light on Mahler’s dark obsession with death and lost innocence, explored in his fourth and fifth symphonies.

The Australian World Orchestra performing Mahlerfest at Hamer Hall.

Directed by its founder Alexander Briger, the AWO brought appealing lustre and engaging clarity to its playing throughout. Attention to details of balance, dynamics and articulation was well projected in a hall where these elements can sometimes be submerged.

Briger led a tightly controlled account of Symphony No.4, a journey driven by a yearning to return to the joys of childhood. Although beginning with the carefree sound of sleigh bells, the work soon sounds ominous signals, leading to a ghoulish second-movement scherzo to which co-concertmaster Rebecca Chan contributed a well-characterised solo.

At the climax of the achingly beautiful third movement, soprano Sarah Traubel appeared, an angelic vision with her shining blonde hair and dressed in a sparkling light blue gown. This closing vocal movement was a setting of The Heavenly Life, a lyric from the folk song collection The Youth’s Magic Horn. Her voice, like that of a child, filled – but didn’t overfill – the hall, bringing the music to a whispered conclusion.

Such quiet was a perfect foil to the opening of the Fifth with its agitated trumpet fanfare commandingly announced by Lukas Beno.

Briger, once again conducting from memory, whipped up nervous energy in the opening funeral march and into the maelstrom of the second movement.

Andrew Bain’s fearless horn playing crowned the consistently colourful playing in the central scherzo. Plush string tone made the celebrated adagietto a heartfelt reverie, before the orchestra, enthusiastically led by co-concertmaster Daniel Dodds, embarked on the triumphant finale.

What a joy to hear Australia’s elite musicians engage with such demanding but rewarding music.
Reviewed by Tony Way

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