 |
| Darcy Brown and Luke Joslin |
Written by Henry
Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields
Directed by Adam
Meggido
Lunchbox Theatre
Productions
Canberra Theatre to
10 February
Reviewed by Len Power
6 February 2019
After the success of ‘The Play Goes Wrong’, Mischief
Theatre’s British creators Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields came
up with ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’, another disastrous evening with the fictitious
Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society ruining a production of the much-loved J.M.
Barrie play, ‘Peter Pan’.
The fun commences well before the performance actually
starts while the audience is being seated.
The show’s crew and cast are clearly not ready for the performance and the
stress that they are experiencing soon amusingly involves audience members.
Things start going very wrong as soon as the play
commences. The physical and verbal gags
quickly mount up as the cast do their best to give a straight delivery of the
play while the ‘backstage crew’ desperately try to fix things as much as
possible without the audience knowing.
Tensions between cast and crew members add spice to the fun.
The beautiful revolving set design by Simon Scullion creates
the perfect environment for this classic play but it’s full of hidden traps for
the hapless cast members – doors that won’t open, windows that fall out, stairs
that break and so on. The fairy-tale
costumes by Roberto Surace contrast nicely with the dowdy crew costumes and the
complex lighting design by Matt Haskins adds tremendously to the fun of the
show.
 |
| Jay Laga'aia, Luke Joslin and Connor Crawford |
The songs by Richard Baker and Rob Falconer are melodic and
sugary sweet with some unexpectedly funny lyrics. There seems to be no limit to the wicked
imagination of the creators of this show.
Director, Adam Meggido, keeps the action fast and furious
and his ensemble cast give uniformly excellent performances. With great energy and comic skill, they each
present vivid characters and perform with razor-sharp, split second timing.
‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ is a delightful and farcical show
that kept the audience in stitches right to the end. Those audience members who lingered in the
auditorium after the show finished were treated to a lengthy sound and voice
gag that was worth staying for.
This review was first
published in the Canberra City News digital edition of 7 February 2019.
Len Power’s reviews
are also broadcast on the Artsound FM 92.7 ‘In the Foyer’ program on Mondays
and Wednesdays at 3.30pm.