Actors are a superstitious bunch. They’ll do all kinds of kooky things to make sure nothing goes wrong. But in the case of the troupe at the West Side Theatre, they’re hoping it all goes wrong – at least everything that is scripted.
The West Side Theatre is staging “The Play That Goes Wrong.” The show will be performed at 7 p.m. Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 and April 19 and 20, and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 14 and April 21.
The play, written in 2012 by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, is a British farce. The show finds the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society having recently received a substantial bequeath and are using it in the staging of “The Murder at Haversham Manor.” Right from the start the play is plagued by one calamity after another. This 1920s whodunit has a ramshackle set, a leading lady with a concussion, and a corpse that can’t play dead.
“Being good Brits they try to power through to get to the end of the play, all the while chaos is erupting,” said play director Kari Thompson.
Thompson said she picked this play because it reminded her of the West Side Players.
“Just like them, we are a small company frequently doing shows with minimal casts,” Thompson said. “So, I like to think that if we were to get a large infusion of cash, we would do something similar.”
The show marks the directorial debut of Thompson as well as about a third of the cast being new to the Players group.
“It’s been really exciting,” Thompson said. “We have a really great cast, very talented and they take their jobs very seriously.”
The cast is:
Chris Bean/Inspector Carter - Nathaniel Flint
Jonathan/Charles Haversham - Chris Snoke
Dennis/Perkins - Alexis Sifers
Robert/Thomas Colleymore - Lucas Garcia
Sandra/Florence Colleymore - Kristin Moore
Max/Cecil Haversham - Emanuel “Manny” Bautista
Annie - Karen Covarrubias
Trevor - Jimmy Gonzales
The crew is:
Barbara Fannin, Stage Manager
Catt Thompson, Sound & Light Tech
Gabie Layne, stage crew
Medrith Hoover, stage crew
Marissa Juarez, stage crew
Joe Moitozo Jr, live foley
Ro Blakesly, live foley
Tickets are $20 for general admission and $25 for reserved seating. Tickets can be purchased in advance at https://westsidetheatre.ticketleap.com/theplay/.