Just as Washington, DC, bids farewell to the Kennedy Center’s decades-old slapstick comedy Shear Madness, The Keegan Theatre has stepped up to fill the farcical void — at least for the next few weeks. Its splendid production of the zany British romp The Play That Goes Wrong fizzes with idiotic aristocrats, ornery scenery, and breathtaking pratfalls. Shakespeare, it is not, nor does it rival Monty Python’s sharp wit and topicality. But if you’re looking for a different kind of cage fight this summer season, have a seat and laugh your head off at this knockabout play-within-a-play. You can even bring the kids.
First, the premise: A modest British drama society is staging a new Agatha Christie-style murder mystery that its members hope will be their breakthrough production. Even before the play begins, however, nearly everything in the drawing-room set goes awry. … With barely a whiff of a plot, and virtually no character development, this confection is less a drama than a deftly executed series of manic comic set pieces performed by terrific actors playing bumbling fools. The show’s achievement lies not in its mystery but in the precision with which it dismantles itself.
Scenic designer and technical director Josh Sticklin has created a living, breathing masterpiece of a set. Walls collapse on cue, and a balcony supported by a single pillar seems practically engineered for disaster, forcing the actors to perform heroically while avoiding serious injury. The result is a ballet of man versus man-made object, with characters locked in combat against phone cords, vases, pistols, and a particularly troublesome settee. With scenery collapsing all around them, it’s no wonder these hapless players forget their lines, mispronounce words, and repeatedly miss cues.
Costume designer Elizabeth Morton adds to the visual merriment with foppish 1920s British country-house attire… Fight and intimacy director Sierra Young keeps the energy flowing, while sound designer Brandon Cook cleverly inserts snippets from Trevor’s playlist at the most comically inappropriate moments.
Michael Innocenti directs all these moving parts with skill and aplomb. Beneath the campy melodrama, his actors display the extraordinary level of trust required to pull off this kind of physical comedy with split-second precision. While few of the cast members resemble trained athletes, they are nevertheless called upon to execute falls, fights, and collisions that would send most of us straight to the emergency room.
The Play That Goes Wrong may someday rival Shear Madness in longevity… Beneath the chaos lies a deceptively sophisticated piece of theatrical engineering, one that makes failure look effortless.
With no topical axe to grind, Keegan’s spiffy production offers a frothy antidote to the heavy cultural battles playing out across the DMV this summer. Duck inside Keegan’s delightful aerie on Church Street, cool off, and enjoy a generous helping of the very best kind of human folly.
