Lewis, Sayer, Shields Deliver Campy Non-Stop Laughs

by Kim Waldron

I thought I didn’t like farce, but it turns out I just needed to see one done right—like San Francisco Playhouse’s “The Play That Went Wrong.”

It’s a farce all right: absurd plot, fast-pace, lots of entrances and exits. Why does this production work so very well?  For all the buffoonery, the writing is smart. The actors have the chops to handle the unceasing, rapid-fire jokes and demanding physical comedy. The technical staff makes the split-second timing of unfolding disasters look easy.

Please excuse me, I got my first paragraph a little wrong. What I saw was the opening night of the British Cornely Polytechnic Drama Society production “The Murder at Haversham Manor.” It seems the Society borrowed the SF Playhouse to stage their 1930s Agatha Christie-style murder mystery.

Unfortunately for the Society, but fortunately for us, everything in their production goes wrong: mis-fired sound cues, scenery disasters, corpses that can’t stay dead, actors who blow lines and entrances. Things start going wrong before the play begins, so think about coming early.

The formidable cast plays both actors and the roles those actors are playing. Phil Wong is Chris, the Society’s Director, and he plays the Inspector. Wong has perfect comic timing. Chris’s fidgeting and nervous laugh are a hoot.

Joe Ayers’s amazing body language, combined with his character Max’s high self-regard for his own talents, makes him an audience favorite.

I can’t imagine any actor could better perform the put-upon butler, Perkins, than Greg Ayers. He seems born to the part.

Renee Rogoff and Tasii Alabastro are brilliant as the Society’s technical staff who get drafted onto the stage. This may be a farce, but these two characters have a true (and quite funny) arc to travel, from technicians to artists.

Adam Griffith’s handsome, airhead Jonathan, Erin Rose Solorio’s sexy Sandra, and Patrick Russell’s ambitious, if naïve Robert, also bring rollicking fun.

All that fine acting depends on the expert back up and timing of the technical crew.  Blue Hephaestus is properties designer, Alicia Lerner is stage manager, with sound design by Dan Holland, and lighting by Michael Palumbo.

On stage, even mayhem must be organized, so congratulations to director Susi Damilano for a superb job.

When you go, pay special attention to the program. I had a lot of fun listening to members of the audience arguing over who was playing what part. Open the program one way, and you’re at San Francisco Playhouse. Turn it upside down and around and you are at the Cornely Polytechnic Drama Society. To figure out the cast, you have to piece the two together.

Just one more thing the Society does “wrong” that makes for a belly laugh.

“The Play That Goes Wrong” by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, & Henry Shields. directed by Susi Damilano, stage managed by Alicia Lerner, properties design by Blue Hephaestus, costumes by Sarah Niamh Nietfeld, scenic design by Cody Tellis Rutledge, sound by Dan Holland, lighting by Michael Palumbo.

—at San Francisco Playhouse. Info: sfplayhouse.org – to November 9, 2024.

Cast: Tasi Alabastro, Greg Ayers, Joe Ayers, Adam Griffith, Renee Rogoff, Patrick Russell, Erin Rose Solorio, and Phil Wong.

Banner photo: Joe Ayers, Phil Wong, Renee Rogoff, & Patrick Russell. Photos by Jessica Palopoli