While it's not easy making it all come apart naturally, audiences can expect to 'laugh hard' at the latest NHS Theatre production 'The Play That Goes Wrong'

It’s not easy making a play that goes wrong look all that natural. But audiences can expect to laugh harder than ever before at the latest production from Nacogdoches High School Theatre.

“The Play That Goes Wrong” takes to the stage Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings next week, Nov. 9-11. The theater opens at 6:30 p.m., and the curtain goes up at 7. Admission is $5.

“‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ is challenging by nature,” said NHS Theatre Director Victoria Perry. “There are scripted things that go wrong, and it’s up to us to make them come to life.”

Perry has a mix of established veterans and newcomers on stage and in the crew.

“This play presents a level playing field for both veteran actors and new ones,” said Perry. “They have to learn all types of new physical comedy skills, which we haven't had to use before.”

“The Play That Goes Wrong” is written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields. It premiered in London in 2012 and spent nearly two years on Broadway and can still be seen as an Off Broadway production.

During the performance, a play within a play, a number of problems occur, such as doors sticking, props falling from walls, and the wall actually collapsing, Perry said.

The cast then has to react to everything that takes place, with each disaster seemingly worse than the one that comes before it, creating plenty of opportunities for laughs.

“I would describe the plot of ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ as a murder mystery but everything goes wrong in increasingly hilarious ways,” said senior Mars McIntosh, who portrays the actor Perkins. “This play has required me to overact and ham up my performance to a degree no other play has before.

“The funniest part of the play for me is the scene that repeats itself as the butler forgets his next line.”

In addition to the “mishaps,” the performance is just plain funny.

“A part of the play that always almost puts me to tears from laughing is Thomas Colleymore on the phone with his accountants, in a very ‘difficult’ position,” said junior Gavin Truchelet, part of the production’s house crew.

It’s not just the cast that has to work its way through a performance full of planned disaster. The crew has to be ready to execute all that “misfortune” taking place on stage.

“The tech aspect of this show is interesting, because you have to plan and create all the mishaps that you hope never happen on stage,” said Amanda Abbott, an NHS fine arts teacher assisting with the production. “Light and sound cues happening at the wrong times, things falling over – on cue, no less – and misplaced props.

“While it looks like all of these things are going wrong, they will actually be going right.”

“The Play That Goes Wrong”

Fall Show Company

Cast

Trevor: Billy Vermulen

Chris: Jamie Gibson

Jonathan: Riley Hall

Robert: Jacob Norman

Dennis: Mars McIntosh

Sandra: Kylar Bowden

Max: Grayson Rhoden

Annie: Peyton Lewis