PURCHASE TICKETS

Miami University Theatre is gearing up for their biggest production of the year, a popular farce called The Play That Goes Wrong by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields.

The production runs April 26, 27, and 29 at 7:30pm, April 28 at 1pm, and April 30 at 2pm in the Gates-Abegglen Theatre in the Center for Performing Arts.

The show revolves around the Cornley University Drama Society’s attempt to put on a production of The Murder at Haversham Manor. Despite their best efforts, everything that can go wrong, does. 

This 1920’s whodunit has everything you never wanted in a show—an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, and actors who trip over everything (including their lines). 

The Play that Goes Wrong has run on Broadway and been performed internationally for years. It stood out as a memorable moment to students who participated in the London Theatre study abroad program. 

“This was literally the funniest play I’ve ever seen,” said theatre major El Eavenson. 

According to Miami University Theatre Director Lewis Magruder, planning this production has been extensive. 

“The challenges of producing a farce that depends as much on design and technical elements as acting skills are considerable,” Magruder said. “So, we’ve had to start planning and production quite early, beginning the design process as early as May of 2022. In addition, the actors have already taken up the challenges of physical training, learning dialects, and rehearsing fight choreography.”

The demands of the show call for all hands on deck, including a cast of ten, a stage management crew of five, a design staff of six, and props numbering north of 60–many of them specialized.

Magruder concludes, “Even with all of the technical challenges, what really engages audiences, I believe, is the sheer determination of the actors to see through the performance no matter what goes wrong.”

Part Monty Python, part Sherlock Holmes, this Olivier Award–winning comedy is a global phenomenon that promises to leave you in stitches!

Purchase tickets online today!