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| Jonathan Sayer |
On the first day of rehearsals we had a cast member drop out after being offered a part in a well paid advert. On the second day our director couldn't make rehearsals because his washing machine flooded his home and he had to wait for a handyman to rescue him. On the third day, the wall of the space we were using to rehearse fell down, nearly injuring most of the actors. For most productions this would be a terrible start, but for us it was perfect preparation….
The Play That Goes Wrong initially started as a short piece written by Henry Lewis when he was much younger. At the time he was attending the Questors Youth Theatre Programme and was lucky enough to be taught by Michael Green who wrote The Art of Coarse Acting and with it The Coarse Acting Plays. People have asked whether there is anyone or anything that has inspired the work and I'd say the two major influences are Michael Green and Lecoq clowning (which is something we did quite a lot of when we were at drama school).
Then many years later Henry Lewis, Henry Shields and I decided to rewrite/extend the piece and turn it into a full play. At the time we were working in pubs, restaurants and call centres, so going home to write was the highlight of the day. We would spend the majority of our days coming up with jokes, gags and scenarios, then run home to tell one another and work them into the script in the evenings. The first draft was put together in under two weeks and without wanting to sound too cliched 'it pretty much wrote itself'. I can't remember laughing so much as when we originally put the first draft of the script together, it was just a lot of fun and at the time the closest thing that any of us had to a hobby.
Since then the show has taken us all on a pretty amazing journey. The play has been published, it's being translated into other languages, has been performed for 8 weeks in London's West End, and now we are about to start our sixth run of the show at The Pleasance Above in Edinburgh for the Festival.
I must admit it's taken me longer than I anticipated to write this blog (much to Dave, our press officer's annoyance). Detailing everything that has happened in the last eight months isn't the easiest thing to do. A lot has happened, very quickly, and at times it's felt like we've had to work flat out just to keep up with the play and whatever direction it's led us in…
Anyway here goes nothing…
We first performed the play under a different name, 'The Murder before Christmas'. Admittedly it was a similar piece to what we have now, but with the odd fleeting reference to 'mince pies in the dining room' and other subtle nods to the festive season. It was the first scripted piece of theatre the company had ever done (we started exclusively as an improv group). It was also the first time the three of us had officially written something together as a team. Looking back it's hard to remember whether we were nervous or not. We were under a lot of time pressure to get everything done and I suppose we didn't have too much time to doubt what we were doing. We all just kept laughing and tried to be as productive as possible. When it came to the opening night it was, the odd hiccup aside, very warmly received and has just gathered momentum from that point.
After Christmas we moved onto another run at The Old Red Lion Theatre. This was the first time it was called The Play That Goes Wrong. One problem we had encountered in the first run was that by not spelling out exactly what the play was in the title, the door was open for one or two confused tourists to come in who thought they were coming to see something more akin to The Mousetrap and perhaps didn't get the joke as immediately as we would have liked. We've found with this style of comedy it's important not to create an atmosphere that feels in any way awkward. If people don't trust us as performers they don't relax and then it's hard to get the laughs the play needs to keep it moving. If you are going to go out and pretend to be very bad at something, it needs to be clear that you are also capable of being very good!
Other than the title and the removal of all things 'Christmassy' its hard to be too specific in what has changed. Obviously there's been a few new things added here and there, and with every new run the odd thing is tweaked, or something new will be found that is worked into the script. Looking back on actual development of the text, surprisingly not a huge amount has changed. With a play like this I imagine it's a bad thing if it ever feels 'finished', it should constantly be evolving and growing. The main aim is always to make the play 'tighter' and to tell the story of the people who are trying to put on the play in the most succinct way as possible. (I think it was Jimmy Carr who said the most important part of writing comedy is cutting it and in my opinion its the same for theatre and storytelling.) Since the first draft a lot of the work has been about us cutting and learning to be ruthless with what's been written and created to make it as economic as possible, whilst maintaining the humour and spirit.
The main thing that has really improved from the first night back at The Old Red is the slickness of the show, it's pretty well oiled now and as a company and as writers we really know the shape of the piece and what it is. I think the only way to really find that is through repetition and practice; not necessarily in the rehearsal room, after all we are a small theatre company so generous amounts of rehearsal time have never really been something afforded to us, but actually doing the show in front of an audience again and again is invaluable. I think we learn something new after each show. With the company's background being improv based it means we are all big believers in the idioms 'best way to get something done is to do it' and 'the best way to find out whether something works is to try it.' It keeps everything fresh and allows us to maintain the sense of danger that's so important to keep the play alive. At the Trafalgar we were doing fourteen shows a week, which is a minimum of two shows a day and sometimes three. It was pretty gruelling work but I do think it's one of the major reasons why the show is in the position and the condition it's in. We've not quite hit ten thousand hours of perfect practice yet but I imagine if we carry on we'll get there.
We've now arrived in Edinburgh to start what will be our company's sixth fringe. It's funny, the average age of the company is 23/24 and it feels like we are fringe veterans. We will be performing our flagship show Lights! Camera! improvise! at the Underbelly and The Play that Goes Wrong at The Pleasance which is hugely exciting because we've wanted to perform there for a long time. The fringe has always been our favourite time of the year and I don't forsee this year being any different.
It's going to be great to continue taking the show to new audiences and doing what we love doing. It's been an amazing ride so far and I can't wait to see where the play takes us next.
Jonathan Sayer
contact@westendframe.com
Jonathan is one of the co- writers of The Play That Goes Wrong `and is Company Director of Mischief Theatre.
The Play That Goes Wrong runs daily at the Pleasance Courtyard at 17:00 between 1st and 26th August 2013. Click here for further information and tickets.
Photo Credits (2&3) - Federica Frezza and Alisha Hamed
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