Rating: ★★★★★
Venue: New Victoria Theatre, Woking
Cast: Jake Burgum, Jack Michael Stacey, Matthew Howell, Jean-Luke Worrell, Ciara Morris, Theo Toksvig-Stewart, Clark Devlin, Jamie Birkett, Gareth Tempest, Rosemarie Akwafo, Clare Noy, Consuela Rolle, Romeo Mika and Phil Yarrow
The much-loved members of the Cornley Drama Society are back on stage, battling technical hitches, flying mishaps and cast disputes as they attempt to present J.M Barrie’s classic tale. But will they ever make it to Neverland?
"This is another genius creation from the Mischief legends, brought to life on stage by such a
phenomenally talented cast."
If you’ve a fan of The Play That Goes Wrong or the BBC television series of The Goes Wrong Show, then this show is definitely for you. And if you haven’t seen those shows you might just want to add them to your list. I am a massive fan of Mischief Comedy and have seen The Play Goes Wrong seven times already, and I have now seen the tour cast of Peter Pan Goes Wrong twice, and was lucky enough to see the West End cast of this show twice too!
This show will have you laughing that much, you may leave the theatre with a new six pack (abs, not beer!). Who needs the gym when you have a show like this? The plot for most of the Mischief shows centre around amateur theatre group, Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society. This time they're putting on a production of J.M Barrie's classic story, Peter Pan. What could possibly go wrong? It turns out...a lot.
Considering the main purpose of the show is for things to go wrong, in fact everything has to go according to plan to able to pull off “the wrong bits”, and hats off to this cast who absolutely nailed this.
A special shoutout to a couple of my favourite performers, The Narrator, Jean-Luke Worrell, who was just incredibly hilarious and I personally loved the rendition of Tom Jones' classic, Sex Bomb. A side note: from seeing this show multiple times the song the narrator sings is different each visit and my favourite one so far has been Beyonce's Single Ladies. Another standout was Matthew Howell, who plays Robert (Nana, The Dog, Peter's Shadow and Starkey). I never thought a shadow could have me howling (and wheezing) but he worked his magic with those dance moves.
I also loved Clark Devlin who plays Dennis (John Darling, Mermaid and Mr Smee) - his constant look of confusion and looking as though he was uncomfortable, wearing those massive headphones so he wouldn’t “forget his lines” was brilliant. It's actors like Clark who pull this off exceptionally well for all the gags to land effectively.
Another performer who stood out was Jamie Birkett who plays Annie (Mrs Darling, Lisa the Maid and Tinkerbell). Her quick costume changes from Mrs Darling to Lisa the Maid was brilliant and so expertly done. And I loved her wonderful performance of Tinkerbell. Also I do feel for Jake Burgum who plays Trevor, who literally ends up upside down with his ar*e out; but to be fair more than one character ends up in their underwear at some point...so it's all fun.
There is one scene which is my favourite part, and it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen this but it gets me every time. This scene is between Dennis and Robert, where Robert is playing Starkey and Dennis is Mr Smee; no spoilers but this scene is so over dramatic and pure genius. How they do this scene over and over again without breaking character is just mind-blowing, and kudos to the cast on stage watching this scene too without breaking character.
There is also an interactive element to the show; from the pre-show where we see Robert asking the audience to get the electrics on stage working, from annoying Chris Bean (played by Jack Michael Stacey) who claims this show isn’t a pantomime but "oh yes it is". There are plenty of opportunities throughout for audience participation.
It's all just pure chaos but the best kind, and to see this show would be an awfully big adventure.
You can book tickets to see Peter Pan Goes Wrong on it's UK tour, here.
Review by Sarah Jayne Vazquez
**Photography by: Pamela Raith**
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