Mercury Theatre and Wiltshire Creative present the worldwide premier of The Mischief Production ‘Good Luck, Studio’, a dark new comedy written by Henry Shields, an Olivier award-winning writer and actor best known for his work co-writing and appearing in ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’.
With that introduction, you know this is going to be a fun and silly play, and it was, it was also very clever, hilarious, entertaining and a brilliant night out.
Set in a TV studio with the last remaining hour of filming a live children’s show with Wibble the Dragon. Time is running out, the show is hideously over budget, and they have to complete the script, no matter what… even if a failed auditionee storms the studio in his own dragon costume, takes hostages at gun point and insists on playing Wibble before the end of the day.
‘Hostage situation’ and ‘comedy’ don’t normally fall in the same sentence, but with this play they do. The chaos that ensues is hilarious. Each character in the play have their own story, which adds layers to play, particularly as each one has a humorous spin.
As well as a great script and brilliant actors, it’s the format which takes the play to another level. We watch the events of the last hour of filming four times, however we watch the same crazy events unfold via four scenes from four different locations, which is fantastic! We get a complete 360 of the story, let’s give you an idea, so with a ‘normal’ play and there is a commotion behind the door off stage, the actors on stage react accordingly, but the audience usually imagines what’s happened. With this play – we get to see the shenanigans that cause the commotion! It is a fun and clever format. Clever in the attention to detail as the timings within each scene to coincide with what we already know. The connections and links and the realisations of ‘ahh that’s why that happened…’ from the audience are both brilliant and hilarious.
The comedy is broad and constant, there isn’t barely a minute that goes by without something funny happening, it’s widely entertaining. A very highly recommended show with adult content and silly adult humour.
A fantastic cast with plenty of great credentials:
Adam Byron as Anthony
Bryony Corrigan as Saoirse
Eboni Dixon as Pam
Jemma Geanaus as Elizabeth
Harry Kershaw as Sean
Chris Leask as Toby
Sophia Lorenti as Michaela
Greg Tannahill as Kevin
Gareth Tempest as David
Tom Walker as Andy
Go and watch it before it goes international!
Photos credit: Pamela Raith.
This review first appeared on GrapevineLIVE.
Link: Mercury Theatre