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‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ is rightly funny
West Side Players staging British farce
Theatre
Emanuel “Manny” Bautista playing “Max” performing “Cecil Haversham” hams it up in “The Play That Goes Wrong.” - photo by Sabra Stafford

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/.