From Nov. 15 to 17, Pomona College Theater’s fall mainstage production of “The Play That Goes Wrong” delivered nonstop audience laughter and onstage chaos. Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields and directed by Tim Giles and Bobby Gutierrez, the comedy is a play-within-a-play that depicts the misadventures of a theater group attempting to stage a murder mystery, “The Murder at Haversham Manor.”
The actors of a fictional theater group, the Byron Dick Seaver Musical Puppetry and Drama Association (BDSM PDA), were plagued by mishaps. Charles Haversham was found dead on the evening of his own engagement party. Havoc ensued as Inspector Carter investigated, culminating in the entire set collapsing.
Although the plot of the murder mystery was suspenseful, audience laughs came from endless on-stage blunders, constant fourth-wall breaks and theatricality. From falling platforms to improvised lines, the commitment to the bit was admirable.
Stella Adler SC ’27, one of the play’s technicians, said the play corresponds exactly to her sense of humor. She played one of the stage crew members of the drama society, staging the mishaps on the set and occasionally making cameos.
“I enjoy how utterly nonsensical it is in terms of [how] most of the things that go wrong could have been solved in the real world if these people had ever rehearsed … in the story world of the play,”Adler said. “The suspension of disbelief and the ridiculousness of it all … I highly enjoy [it].”
Many scenes included intentionally botched dialogue. Actors playing the fictional cast regularly mispronounced words like “ominous,” “suicide” and “morose,” called for forgotten lines mid-scene and froze into melodramatic poses during dramatic musical cues.
The director of the fictional play, Chris Bean, played by Eliza Levy PZ ’26, introduced the production in a farcically theatrical way, peppered with meta-jokes surrounding other theatrical productions.
“For the first time in this society’s history, we have a play that fits the number of players perfectly,” Levy said. “A lack of members has sometimes tempered such productions … such as last year’s Chekhov Play ‘Two Sisters.’”
The humor extended to plot absurdities. In one standout sequence, Charles Haversham — played by Nicholas Russell PO ’26 — played dead while other characters repeatedly hit Charles and even accidentally sat on him. Russell intentionally broke character at times. Later, during an attempt to move his “body” upstairs following Inspector Carter’s investigation, the stretcher broke, leading to a gag where Russell had to follow the stretcher and reposition himself on it before playing dead again.
In another scene, the inspector asked the butler Perkins — played by Petey Graham CM ’25 — to serve scotch to Charles’ brother Cecil Haversham and Charles’ fiancee Florence Colleymore. Perkins instead served them paint thinner. The mishap escalated when Perkins delivered an incorrect line, triggering an increasingly frenetic loop of the same scene.
After Florence and Cecil were revealed to be having an affair, the inspector accused Cecil of Charles’ murder. Florence’s brother fatally shot Cecil in the back. The stage manager then stepped in after the original actress was knocked out by a door, to much audience uproar.
The physical comedy continued to escalate — the upstairs platform began to collapse after the gardener, pretending to be a guard dog, knocked down its support. Evidence implicated Florence in the murder; they call the stage manager back, but chaos erupts as both the stage manager and the original actress fought for the role.
By the end, the entire set fell apart. The inspector was revealed to be the murderer and Charles came back to life, shooting the inspector to death. Florence’s brother was also revealed to be an accomplice.
”Let us hope we never see another murder at Haversham Manor,” Charles proclaimed.
The production’s technical execution impressed many audience members.
“When the set started to fall apart, it was an incredible piece of theater craftsmanship,” Grace Trautwein SC ’28 said. “I… liked the scene where they kept repeating over and over the exact same language.”
Sahil Rane HM ’25 was equally entertained by the platform’s collapse.
“The little study falling down was really good, and when [Thomas] jumped out of the elevator in the tower … that was crazy,” Rane said.
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