Christmas Carol Goes Wrong
Christmas Carol Goes Wrong is a comedy play by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields of the Mischief Theatre company, based on their 2017 BBC television special.
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Christmas Carol Goes Wrong is a comedy play by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields of the Mischief Theatre company, based on their 2017 BBC television special.
The play revolves around the relationships between five school-friends are explored at three stages of their lives: in Year Two in 1994, Year Nine in 2001, and at a school reunion in the present day.
Peter Pan Goes Wrong is a comedy play by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields of the Mischief Theatre company, creators of The Play That Goes Wrong (2012).
The year is 1958. Convict Mitch Ruscitti, currently imprisoned at the British Columbia Penitentiary, hatches an escape plan with Neil Cooper, one of the guards, with the intent of traveling to Minneapolis to steal a diamond worth half a million dollars. Unfortunately, due to Cooper's big mouth, word gets out about the plan, and the whole prison wants to join the heist. Mitch and Cooper are able to escape, however, and they drive down to the Twin Cities to find the diamond. Meanwhile, at the Minneapolis City Bank, manager Robin Freeboys oversees preparations to ensure the bank is secure enough to store the diamond in question, owned by Prince Ludwig of Hungary. This proves tough, as the bank is victim to more crimes than any other bank in the state (in fact, Mr. Freeboys' car and furniture are stolen by robbers who were mistaken as bank staff). Luckily, Ruth Monaghan, a teller at the bank (who always says "everyone in this town's a crook"), persuades bureau officer Randall Shuck to allow the bank to store the diamond, much to his superiors' anger. Over the next few days, Caprice Freeboys, Mr. Freeboys' daughter and Mitch's ex, starts dating Sam Monaghan, Ruth's son and a pickpocket, in the hopes of sweet-talking some money out of him (the money she currently gets from her father and other three suitors will barely cover her rent). While at her apartment, however, Mitch and Cooper arrive with the tools needed to pull off the bank heist (including ventilation blueprints and an electric drill), along with the codes for the diamond case. The two crooks rope Sam and Caprice into joining them, mainly because the former can pose as Mr. Freeboys, and the latter as Prince Ludwig's attaché. Before they leave for the night, however, Mitch privately tells Caprice that he's not cutting Sam in, noting "as soon as we got the diamond, Sam's dead." The next several days pass with the bank finishing preparations, Ruth and Randall dating, the heist team going over their plan, and Sam asking Ruth for relationship advice. On the night of the heist, things don't go according to plan (Cooper initially sedates Sam instead of Mr. Freeboys, for one), but the team is able to shut down the AC and access the air ducts. As they crawl past the back office, they're forced to knock out and bring along intern Warren Slax as he attempts to check the vents. Eventually, Mitch and Cooper get separated from the rest of the team, and find themselves directly over the vault. Unfortunately, the vent below Cooper buckles, and Mitch, having no further use for Cooper, shoves him into the still-running fan below, killing him. Once Sam and Caprice arrive, Mitch convinces them that he tried to save Cooper, and they continue with the heist. Once inside the vault, the team is able to access the casing containing the diamond, but Mr. Freeboys (who was planning on stealing the diamond himself to cause a stir in the newspapers) walks in on them, forcing Mitch to shoot him and Prince Ludwig (who was hoping to resolve the situation). With the diamond in hand, Mitch tells Caprice to shoot Sam, but she refuses out of love for Sam; Mitch responds by shooting Caprice, but Sam dives in front of her and takes the bullet in his shoulder. Before Mitch can kill either of them, however, Warren falls out of the vent and lands on Mitch, allowing Sam and Caprice to escape. The two of them make it to Caprice's apartment, where she attempts to patch up Sam's shoulder. Before she can get started, though, Mitch catches up to them and attempts to shoot Caprice, but Randall shoots him first. At Ruth's persuasion, he misdirects the police, patches up Sam's wound, and gives him and Caprice his car to cross over into Ontario and lie low (it's a good thing Caprice knows someone there). Once they leave, Ruth takes the diamond from the dead Mitch, handcuffs Randall to Caprice's bed, and spills a trail of liquor onto the ground. She then warns Randall to be careful who he trusts, before holding up a lighter and giving one last remark: "It's like I always say; everyone in this town's a crook." (This ending was changed about a month into the run of the show as it was seen as quite a dark ending to a funny show. Ruth takes the diamond from the dead Mitch and handcuffs Randall to Caprice's bed. She then warns Randall to be careful who he trusts, giving one last remark: "It's like I always say; everyone in this town's a crook." She leaves and does not set fire to the apartment.)
After the existence of a new top-secret weapon, codenamed Project Midnight, is leaked to the Russians, MI6 prepare to have the plans transferred to a safehouse. However, a bomb explodes and the plans are stolen, with the agents unsuccessfully chasing the rogue agent across London. KGB Agents Sergei Ivanov and Elena Popov are dispatched to retrieve the files at a handover in the Piccadilly hotel. They masquerade as a married English couple - Tim and Annabel Plank - with Elena becoming frustrated with Sergei's cheerful demeanour, complicated fake backstories, and his attempts to befriend her. CIA Agent Lance Buchanan is also instructed to go there and find the turncoat MI6 agent. His mother, the retired CIA Agent Janet Buchanan, also shows up unannounced to assist him. Also present at the hotel is the struggling actor Douglas Woodbead, who mistakenly believes the Buchanans are Hollywood producers for the new James Bond movies. Banker Rosemary Wilson checks into the hotel for a work conference, and is in turn surprised when her boyfriend, hapless baker Bernard Wright, shows up to join her. The two pairs of spies attempt to identify the informant and the other spies through a series of manoeuvres. Bernard, meanwhile, prepares to propose to Rosemary, who in turn wants to break up with him and seems to be having an affair with her tennis instructor Marco. The hotel manager, Mr Tipton, attempts to help Bernard and placate the increasingly annoyed guests, as well as preparing for a secret shopper that is staying at their hotel. Sergei and Elena mistakenly believe Bernard is a CIA agent, and repeatedly break into his room impersonating hotel employees. Lance and Janet initially believe the same thing, before then believing Douglas is the informant. The confusion culminates in Sergei, Elena, and Lance bursting into the same room whilst Janet comforts a heartbroken Bernard. The three quickly identify each other as the real spies, and retreat back to their rooms. Lance and Janet, with their covers blown, decide to recruit a fearful Bernard. Bernard attempts to learn the real location of the handover from Sergei and Elena, but they deduce that the Buchanans sent him. They in turn send him back with false information, which the Buchanans quickly realise as well. The two sets of spies repeatedly use Bernard as a go-between until he becomes frustrated and flees to find Rosemary. Sergei and Elena head to the lobby to meet with their informant, whilst Lance and Janet search every spot that Bernard told them. Due to a mishap with the laundry, Douglas is wearing a green jacket that the KGB agents were told to spot, and they make plans to meet him on the roof to handoff the file. Bernard witnesses this and warns the Buchanans, although they do not believe him. At the meeting, Sergei and Elena realise the truth and flee, running into the CIA agents as they do so. The quartet fight through the hotel whilst Bernard poorly attempts to confront Douglas. Bernard and Douglas run into Rosemary, who is heading to her meeting. She puts on a green jacket, revealing herself to be the informant, and Bernard confronts her. Lance and Janet intercede and try to kill Rosemary, who flees to the lobby. Bernard reaches her first by scaling the lift shaft, and Rosemary reveals she is an MI6 agent and Marco is actually her handler. The KGB and CIA agents all arrive in the lobby, and pursue Rosemary and Bernard. The chase spills through the streets of London and eventually to the docks along the Thames, where Rosemary meets with Sergei and Elena. Bernard steals the case, but Rosemary convinces him to hand it back, upon which she gives it to the Russians. Lance and Janet arrive, where the former attempts to shoot Sergei, but Elena jumps in front. However, just as they seem to best the KGB duo, Janet reveals herself to be a double agent, who had been sabotaging Lance's career as a spy, and shoots him in the side. Sergei and the wounded Elena escape with the case on a submarine. Mr Tipton arrives, and is revealed to be Marco, who recorded Janet's confession. Rosemary admits to being a triple agent, who only pretended to steal the plans to force a CIA mole - Janet - to reveal themself. Marco then betrays Rosemary and is revealed to be working with Janet, who attempts to shoot Rosemary. However, Bernard had removed the bullets in her gun, allowing Rosemary to disarm and kill Marco. Lance shoots Janet to save them, and sadly walks away. Rosemary states she does love Bernard, but fears they cannot be together due to her work. She decides to resign so they can get married, but Bernard, having enjoyed himself, encourages her to do both. Rosemary then reveals the briefcase actually contains explosives set to go off at midnight. In the submarine, Sergei and Elena decide to throw the plans for Project Midnight into the river so that neither side can use it. However, when they open the briefcase, they instead find Douglas Woodbead's belongings, as Rosemary accidentally switched their cases earlier. Douglas can then be heard finally arriving at the audition for James Bond before his briefcase explodes.
The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, after being forced by a lack of personnel to stage scaled-down productions such as Two Sisters, The Lion and The Wardrobe, Cat, and James and the Peach, has received a substantial bequest and is putting on a performance of The Murder at Haversham Manor – a 1920s murder mystery play, similar to The Mousetrap, which has the right number of parts for its members. The cast is headed by Chris Bean, who plays Inspector Carter and serves as the show's director, set designer, costume designer, props maker, box office manager, press and PR person, voice and dialect coach, and fight choreographer. Before the play starts the backstage staff makes last-minute adjustments to the set, including trying to mend a broken mantelpiece and find a dog that has run off. During the performance, a plethora of disasters befalls the actors, including doors sticking or failing to stay closed, loose floorboards, set pieces falling, and platforms collapsing. Cast members fall down, are struck by set pieces, misplace and break props, forget lines, miss cues, break character, drink white spirit instead of Scotch whisky, mispronounce words, step on fingers, are hidden in a grandfather clock, and are manhandled off stage. One cast member is knocked unconscious, and her replacement (the group's technician reading the lines from a script) refuses to yield when the actress returns. An actor repeats an earlier line of dialogue, cuing the other actors to repeat the whole dialogue sequence, ever more frenetically, several times. During intermission, a few of the actors will interact directly with patrons in the lobby as Bean desperately tries to corral them back into the dressing room. In the climax, virtually the whole of the remaining set collapses.
Christmas Carol Goes Wrong is a comedy play by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields of the Mischief Theatre company, based on their 2017 BBC television special.
The play revolves around the relationships between five school-friends are explored at three stages of their lives: in Year Two in 1994, Year Nine in 2001, and at a school reunion in the present day.
Peter Pan Goes Wrong is a comedy play by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields of the Mischief Theatre company, creators of The Play That Goes Wrong (2012).
The year is 1958. Convict Mitch Ruscitti, currently imprisoned at the British Columbia Penitentiary, hatches an escape plan with Neil Cooper, one of the guards, with the intent of traveling to Minneapolis to steal a diamond worth half a million dollars. Unfortunately, due to Cooper's big mouth, word gets out about the plan, and the whole prison wants to join the heist. Mitch and Cooper are able to escape, however, and they drive down to the Twin Cities to find the diamond. Meanwhile, at the Minneapolis City Bank, manager Robin Freeboys oversees preparations to ensure the bank is secure enough to store the diamond in question, owned by Prince Ludwig of Hungary. This proves tough, as the bank is victim to more crimes than any other bank in the state (in fact, Mr. Freeboys' car and furniture are stolen by robbers who were mistaken as bank staff). Luckily, Ruth Monaghan, a teller at the bank (who always says "everyone in this town's a crook"), persuades bureau officer Randall Shuck to allow the bank to store the diamond, much to his superiors' anger. Over the next few days, Caprice Freeboys, Mr. Freeboys' daughter and Mitch's ex, starts dating Sam Monaghan, Ruth's son and a pickpocket, in the hopes of sweet-talking some money out of him (the money she currently gets from her father and other three suitors will barely cover her rent). While at her apartment, however, Mitch and Cooper arrive with the tools needed to pull off the bank heist (including ventilation blueprints and an electric drill), along with the codes for the diamond case. The two crooks rope Sam and Caprice into joining them, mainly because the former can pose as Mr. Freeboys, and the latter as Prince Ludwig's attaché. Before they leave for the night, however, Mitch privately tells Caprice that he's not cutting Sam in, noting "as soon as we got the diamond, Sam's dead." The next several days pass with the bank finishing preparations, Ruth and Randall dating, the heist team going over their plan, and Sam asking Ruth for relationship advice. On the night of the heist, things don't go according to plan (Cooper initially sedates Sam instead of Mr. Freeboys, for one), but the team is able to shut down the AC and access the air ducts. As they crawl past the back office, they're forced to knock out and bring along intern Warren Slax as he attempts to check the vents. Eventually, Mitch and Cooper get separated from the rest of the team, and find themselves directly over the vault. Unfortunately, the vent below Cooper buckles, and Mitch, having no further use for Cooper, shoves him into the still-running fan below, killing him. Once Sam and Caprice arrive, Mitch convinces them that he tried to save Cooper, and they continue with the heist. Once inside the vault, the team is able to access the casing containing the diamond, but Mr. Freeboys (who was planning on stealing the diamond himself to cause a stir in the newspapers) walks in on them, forcing Mitch to shoot him and Prince Ludwig (who was hoping to resolve the situation). With the diamond in hand, Mitch tells Caprice to shoot Sam, but she refuses out of love for Sam; Mitch responds by shooting Caprice, but Sam dives in front of her and takes the bullet in his shoulder. Before Mitch can kill either of them, however, Warren falls out of the vent and lands on Mitch, allowing Sam and Caprice to escape. The two of them make it to Caprice's apartment, where she attempts to patch up Sam's shoulder. Before she can get started, though, Mitch catches up to them and attempts to shoot Caprice, but Randall shoots him first. At Ruth's persuasion, he misdirects the police, patches up Sam's wound, and gives him and Caprice his car to cross over into Ontario and lie low (it's a good thing Caprice knows someone there). Once they leave, Ruth takes the diamond from the dead Mitch, handcuffs Randall to Caprice's bed, and spills a trail of liquor onto the ground. She then warns Randall to be careful who he trusts, before holding up a lighter and giving one last remark: "It's like I always say; everyone in this town's a crook." (This ending was changed about a month into the run of the show as it was seen as quite a dark ending to a funny show. Ruth takes the diamond from the dead Mitch and handcuffs Randall to Caprice's bed. She then warns Randall to be careful who he trusts, giving one last remark: "It's like I always say; everyone in this town's a crook." She leaves and does not set fire to the apartment.)
After the existence of a new top-secret weapon, codenamed Project Midnight, is leaked to the Russians, MI6 prepare to have the plans transferred to a safehouse. However, a bomb explodes and the plans are stolen, with the agents unsuccessfully chasing the rogue agent across London. KGB Agents Sergei Ivanov and Elena Popov are dispatched to retrieve the files at a handover in the Piccadilly hotel. They masquerade as a married English couple - Tim and Annabel Plank - with Elena becoming frustrated with Sergei's cheerful demeanour, complicated fake backstories, and his attempts to befriend her. CIA Agent Lance Buchanan is also instructed to go there and find the turncoat MI6 agent. His mother, the retired CIA Agent Janet Buchanan, also shows up unannounced to assist him. Also present at the hotel is the struggling actor Douglas Woodbead, who mistakenly believes the Buchanans are Hollywood producers for the new James Bond movies. Banker Rosemary Wilson checks into the hotel for a work conference, and is in turn surprised when her boyfriend, hapless baker Bernard Wright, shows up to join her. The two pairs of spies attempt to identify the informant and the other spies through a series of manoeuvres. Bernard, meanwhile, prepares to propose to Rosemary, who in turn wants to break up with him and seems to be having an affair with her tennis instructor Marco. The hotel manager, Mr Tipton, attempts to help Bernard and placate the increasingly annoyed guests, as well as preparing for a secret shopper that is staying at their hotel. Sergei and Elena mistakenly believe Bernard is a CIA agent, and repeatedly break into his room impersonating hotel employees. Lance and Janet initially believe the same thing, before then believing Douglas is the informant. The confusion culminates in Sergei, Elena, and Lance bursting into the same room whilst Janet comforts a heartbroken Bernard. The three quickly identify each other as the real spies, and retreat back to their rooms. Lance and Janet, with their covers blown, decide to recruit a fearful Bernard. Bernard attempts to learn the real location of the handover from Sergei and Elena, but they deduce that the Buchanans sent him. They in turn send him back with false information, which the Buchanans quickly realise as well. The two sets of spies repeatedly use Bernard as a go-between until he becomes frustrated and flees to find Rosemary. Sergei and Elena head to the lobby to meet with their informant, whilst Lance and Janet search every spot that Bernard told them. Due to a mishap with the laundry, Douglas is wearing a green jacket that the KGB agents were told to spot, and they make plans to meet him on the roof to handoff the file. Bernard witnesses this and warns the Buchanans, although they do not believe him. At the meeting, Sergei and Elena realise the truth and flee, running into the CIA agents as they do so. The quartet fight through the hotel whilst Bernard poorly attempts to confront Douglas. Bernard and Douglas run into Rosemary, who is heading to her meeting. She puts on a green jacket, revealing herself to be the informant, and Bernard confronts her. Lance and Janet intercede and try to kill Rosemary, who flees to the lobby. Bernard reaches her first by scaling the lift shaft, and Rosemary reveals she is an MI6 agent and Marco is actually her handler. The KGB and CIA agents all arrive in the lobby, and pursue Rosemary and Bernard. The chase spills through the streets of London and eventually to the docks along the Thames, where Rosemary meets with Sergei and Elena. Bernard steals the case, but Rosemary convinces him to hand it back, upon which she gives it to the Russians. Lance and Janet arrive, where the former attempts to shoot Sergei, but Elena jumps in front. However, just as they seem to best the KGB duo, Janet reveals herself to be a double agent, who had been sabotaging Lance's career as a spy, and shoots him in the side. Sergei and the wounded Elena escape with the case on a submarine. Mr Tipton arrives, and is revealed to be Marco, who recorded Janet's confession. Rosemary admits to being a triple agent, who only pretended to steal the plans to force a CIA mole - Janet - to reveal themself. Marco then betrays Rosemary and is revealed to be working with Janet, who attempts to shoot Rosemary. However, Bernard had removed the bullets in her gun, allowing Rosemary to disarm and kill Marco. Lance shoots Janet to save them, and sadly walks away. Rosemary states she does love Bernard, but fears they cannot be together due to her work. She decides to resign so they can get married, but Bernard, having enjoyed himself, encourages her to do both. Rosemary then reveals the briefcase actually contains explosives set to go off at midnight. In the submarine, Sergei and Elena decide to throw the plans for Project Midnight into the river so that neither side can use it. However, when they open the briefcase, they instead find Douglas Woodbead's belongings, as Rosemary accidentally switched their cases earlier. Douglas can then be heard finally arriving at the audition for James Bond before his briefcase explodes.
The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, after being forced by a lack of personnel to stage scaled-down productions such as Two Sisters, The Lion and The Wardrobe, Cat, and James and the Peach, has received a substantial bequest and is putting on a performance of The Murder at Haversham Manor – a 1920s murder mystery play, similar to The Mousetrap, which has the right number of parts for its members. The cast is headed by Chris Bean, who plays Inspector Carter and serves as the show's director, set designer, costume designer, props maker, box office manager, press and PR person, voice and dialect coach, and fight choreographer. Before the play starts the backstage staff makes last-minute adjustments to the set, including trying to mend a broken mantelpiece and find a dog that has run off. During the performance, a plethora of disasters befalls the actors, including doors sticking or failing to stay closed, loose floorboards, set pieces falling, and platforms collapsing. Cast members fall down, are struck by set pieces, misplace and break props, forget lines, miss cues, break character, drink white spirit instead of Scotch whisky, mispronounce words, step on fingers, are hidden in a grandfather clock, and are manhandled off stage. One cast member is knocked unconscious, and her replacement (the group's technician reading the lines from a script) refuses to yield when the actress returns. An actor repeats an earlier line of dialogue, cuing the other actors to repeat the whole dialogue sequence, ever more frenetically, several times. During intermission, a few of the actors will interact directly with patrons in the lobby as Bean desperately tries to corral them back into the dressing room. In the climax, virtually the whole of the remaining set collapses.