Josh Epstein’s job is to ensure everything goes right in The Play That Goes Wrong
The Arts Club director says the smash-hit U.K. show is one of the most technically demanding comedies ever written
(Left to right) Josh Epstein directs Praneet Akilla and Genevieve Fleming in The Play That Goes Wrong.
The Arts Club Theatre Company presents The Play That Goes Wrong at the Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island from June 18 to August 16
YES, IT’S CALLED The Play That Goes Wrong, but for it to truly live up to its title, everything needs to go just right. In the smash-hit comedy—which was created by the U.K.’s Mischief Theatre Company in 2012 and has since seen numerous touring and local productions—doors get stuck, props malfunction, and floors collapse.
Josh Epstein, who’s directing the Arts Club’s mounting of the play, tells Stir that the key to making it all work is to have it appear to the audience that the show is flying off the rails, all while keeping a tight rein on the apparent chaos.
“Let me tell you, as we work through it, trying to get everything to go wrong right is incredibly technically difficult,” Epstein says in a telephone interview. “I think the result you’re going to see is effortless, but it’s one of the most technically demanding comedies ever written.”
The premise of The Play That Goes Wrong is that a small theatre company is staging a murder mystery while simultaneously contending with a series of onstage mishaps, from falling chandeliers to forgotten lines.
“They’ve poured their hearts, their souls, and their entire budget into this production, but unfortunately everything that can go wrong does go wrong,” Epstein explains. “The genius of this show in the way it’s put together, though, is that we’re playing it completely serious. So the comedy comes from people desperately trying to save the performance. I think what people love even more than a joke is watching someone with status and dignity and purpose encountering any problem that they absolutely did not plan for, and then they make the wrong choice with total conviction again and again.”
This is a play that calls for a cast of players who not only have acting chops, but are equally comfortable with physical comedy. Thanks to Vancouver’s surplus of multitalented performers, finding locals who were up for the script’s demands was, Epstein says, not as difficult as you might think.
“Vancouver is very underrated for how incredible the comedic performers are here,” the director says. “Having the luxury of watching the auditions, honestly, I could have cast the show six times. It was such a deep pool. A show like this, everybody wanted to be in it because it’s fun to do, and I think a lot of people here are up for a challenge.”
Epstein has nothing but effusive praise for his cast, which includes Praneet Akilla, portraying both the detective and the director of The Murder at Haversham Manor, the play within the play. Genevieve Fleming plays Sandra, the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society’s resident femme fatale, with Scott Bellis, Andrew McNee, Pedro M. Almeida-Siqueria, Zander Eke, Ben Elliott, Alexandra Lainfiesta, Argel Monte de Ramos, Kelli Ogmundson, and Marco Walker-Ng rounding out the ensemble.
“I didn’t want it to look like they knew they were funny,” Epstein says. “That’s the goal of the show. These performers, they’re heartfelt, they’re honest. They’re incredibly funny, they’re incredibly physical, yes—they have to be, to be able to do all that—but they can ground the performance. The second that you know you’re being funny, in this setup that we’re creating for the show, it just reads a little bit false, and it falls outside the container that we’re building for the show.”
There’s some serious star power in that onstage lineup, although Epstein is quick to give just as much credit to set designer Ryan Cormack and the rest of the creative team.
“The star of the show is the set,” Epstein insists. “It behaves like a mischievous character. Everything about it has a role to play in the comedy, and there’s incredible, spectacular surprises. It’s been a year of planning for this.”
Even for those who are already familiar with The Play That Goes Wrong, the director promises that this production has some unexpected twists in store.
“I want even people who are fans of the show, or people who have seen it before, to come in and see some things that they’ve never seen before,” he says. “So this one’s going to have some surprises for those people.” 
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