Embrace disaster at ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’
Director Malcolm Tulip gets excited just talking about “The Play That Goes Wrong,” because it’s the “right” play at the “right” time.
“It’s the kind of comedy that I am especially drawn to,” he says. “It is clowning thrown into a play where there is a story but that simply serves as a framework for the comedic bits. I love the mess too! Nothing is funnier than disasters — when they happen to other people. The audience can take a break from looking for meaning, themes and issues and enjoy the romp!”
We can all use a good “romp” right about now and Tipping Point Theatre in Northville has the ticket with “The Play That Goes Wrong,” written by Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields and Henry Lewis.
First opened in the West End in September 2014, “The Play That Goes Wrong,” hopped over the pond in March 2017 to open on Broadway with the original London cast. The production finished its run on Broadway in January 2019, only to find a new home off-Broadway in February 2019.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” Tipping Point Producing Artistic Director James Kuhl asked himself, “Aside from, you know, the things that are supposed to go wrong.” The production features some hefty technical mishaps, including a second story platform falling. The theatre fits just over 100 people in their intimate space adding some extra limitations to the technical feat they plan to tackle. But the popular Northville theatre is no stranger to pushing the limits of their space.
“Tipping Point likes to push things as far as we can and challenge the perceived restrictions of our space,” says Kuhl. “So the challenges are in solving how to honor and execute feats in our intimate space and modest budgets. But I think that is exactly why it will be so worthwhile to see this play at TPT, because our space is far more intimate and the action will be right on top of you.”
“The Play That Goes Wrong” features Ryan Carl
son, X. Alexander Durden, Tommy Favorite, Marcela Garzaro, Adam Graber, Aral Gribble, Alexandra Lee, Pat Loos, Rusty Mewha and Katy Tye. Finding the “right” cast to execute everything that goes “wrong” was an important part of the process for Tulip and Kuhl.
“The cast have to be willing to be bad, over the top,” says Tulip. “They have to have a direct relationship with their audience, a lot more than usual. Each actor has their own particular sense of humor but they are all fearless physical comedians too. They get to put their own stamp on these characters.”
Kuhl adds that the play has a lot of layers and a specific style that calls for a group of actors who must be professionals and who are immensely qualified and talented.
“The full layers are that our audience gets to experience a show within a show, where our actually immensely qualified and talented actors act as if they are a less than qualified cast who are earnestly attempting to perform a suspenseful Murder Mystery, that they don’t know will fall to
pieces at every turn possible,” he says. “And finding that right mix is a lot of challenging artistic work.”
Kuhl says that a play like “The Play That Goes Wrong” makes for the best kind of theatre.
“There is a common phrase in the theatre called ‘the actor’s nightmare,’ a shared experience amongst all theatre performers when we are performing under very unexpected circumstances,” he said. “This play un-relentlessly subjects the characters to every possible scenario of the actor’s nightmare. We are able to execute these absurd scenarios on purpose and with a lot of safety in order to
bring the humor of that nightmare to our audiences. It’s exciting and a little scary to step into a process that you may not have all of the answers to from the beginning. But the faith that we have in each other as collaborative artists always leads us to amazing solutions.”
“The Play That Goes Wrong” will run Feb. 3 through March 6 at the Tipping Point Theatre, 361 E. Cady St., Northville. Tickets can be purchased on the Tipping Point website at tippingpointtheatre.com or by calling the box office at (248)-347-0003, with special discounts for seniors, military, students, and groups in need of some comedic healing.