A goofy sleuth spoof tour de farce of cock-up, clockwork precision.
“…it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious/periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags,/ to split the ears of the groundlings, who/for the most part are capable of nothing but/inexplicable dumbshows and noise…” Oh no they’re not!
Notwithstanding, counter-intuitively even inspired by it, Hamlet’s sage caution does not fall on deaf ears (tin ones certainly). The Play That Goes Wrong, just cannot go wrong. One definition of madness is the insistence on repeating the same mistake – repeatedly. This motley troupe clearly have method in their madness.
Recalling their return to Edinburgh after the hiatus of Covid and halitosis reviews (first treading very loose floorboards and literally bringing the house down in March 2018) The Edinburgh Reporter is duty-bound to remind with all due candour that –
‘In reaching for the stars (or a review rating of 1* at least) Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society throw off, yet again, the shackles of contemporary stagecraft orthodoxy and badly go where no ham-dram company has been before. Or should ever endeavour. The clue is in the title.
Michael Green’s The Art Of Course Acting defines its cast as ones whom, “Can remember the pauses but not the lines”. CPDS’s opus, Murder At Haversham Manor, is exactly what it says on the tin – excruciating murder indeed. And the family name, Haversham? She went up in flames in Great Expectations. Clue there!
Be warned: check personal health insurance clauses for theatrical side-splitting damage excess.
Returning for yet another calamitous ruin. Book very early indeed!
