A Success Farce for Lovers of Good Comedy: A Play That Goes Wrong

The Play That Goes Wrong (2012), an award-winning comedy hit by the British writer trio Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, will premiere on the Arena stage on 9 March. The play, which was originally written as a thesis for the theatre school, became a huge worldwide success, and now it is performed in Finnish for the first time in Helsinki. The play, translated into Finnish by Mikko Koivusalo, is directed by Pentti Kotkaniemi.

“I take my hat off to these three English actors who came up with this brilliant comedy, performed it as a one-act version in the back room of a pub, then expanded it into a feature-length play, and the rest is history. This is one of the best comedies I’ve read or seen in a long time,” says Pentti “Bona” Kotkaniemi, a specialist in comedy and farce directing, whose record-breaking Stones in the Pocket will celebrate its 20th anniversary in the autumn.

The comedy The Play That Goes Wrong features Alex Anton, Joel Hirvonen, Risto Kaskilahti, Santeri Kinnunen, Matti Rasila, Eppu Salminen, Eija Vilpas and Linda Wiklund. The set design also plays a particularly important role in the performance, and it is designed by Peter Ahlqvist.

Set in the world of theatre, the comedy follows the unsuccessful attempt of an amateur theatre group suffering from a lack of resources to prepare a classic murder mystery play for the premiere. If something can go wrong in a presentation, it will – and even more!

The costume design is by Elina Vättö, the lighting design by Valdemar Virtanen and the sound design by Jaakko Virmavirta. The music of the performance is composed by Jaakko Virmavirta and Ivan Bavard. The camouflage was designed by Pia Kähkönen.

The play, written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields in 2012 for the final night of the Theatre Academy, was performed in a small pub in North London, where the audience was initially only in name. Word of a new, hilarious farce began to spread, and soon the pub was packed every night. With its popularity, the play went on a tour of the United Kingdom, followed by London’s West End and Broadway. Eventually, the play became an international hit with two million viewers around the world. The play has won several awards in the theatre industry, including Olivier for Best New Comedy (2015) and Tony Award for Best Set Design (2017).

Background article for the play: From a London pub to international popularity.
 

The Premiere of The Play That Goes Wrong on 9.3.2022 at the Arena Stage of the Helsinki City Theatre (Hämeentie 2)
Tickets: student ticket 22 € (Mon-Thu), pensioner ticket 41 € (Mon-Thu), basic ticket 44 €

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