Review: Christmas Carol Goes Wrong – Mischief

Modern-day masters of old-school stage comedy, Mischief, are back in Edinburgh with Christmas Carol Goes Wrong. With them comes their fictional Cornley Drama Society (formerly The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society), famous for such memorable outings as The Play That Goes Wrong and, of course, Peter Pan Goes Wrong.

Seemingly undaunted by the calamities attending these past productions, they are back, and this time they’re doing Dickens…and it’s going to go terribly, and hilariously wrong.

Written by OG Mischief trio, Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields, two of whom reprise their roles within the Am-Dram outfit which made the company a household name, this ‘Goes Wrong’ frames its capers a little differently from its prequels.

Dickens gets the Cornley treatment

Originally written as a BBC TV Christmas special in 2017, this comedy begins behind the scenes, as Cornley’s famously volatile Actor-Director Chris Bean (Daniel Fraser) attempts to cast his Christmas Carol. Cue appearances from the usual misfits populating the Society’s productions, including bombastic spotlight hog, Robert Grove (Lewis), and the pathologically awkward Dennis Tyde (Sayer), who remains as incapable of remembering lines as ever.

Chris’s perpetually enthusiastic assistant, Annie Twolloil (Nancy Zamit, another Mischief founder), might love them all, but if Chris had any choice, not one would get a part.

Seemingly undaunted by the calamities attending these past productions, they are back, and this time they’re doing Dickens…and it’s going to go terribly, and hilariously wrong.

So far, so witty and amusing, even as lights begin to fall from the skies—a hazard Stage Manager Trevor assures the cast is merely ‘natural selection’ in action. However, all of the badinage over set design and casting choices is but the prelude to the main event.

Put simply, the production of A Christmas Carol that follows goes wrong almost immediately, its dysfunction escalating towards an inevitable catastrophe which defies prediction. Whether it’s Jonathan (Greg Tanahill) trapping both props and stage manager with his chains whilst ‘haunting’ Scrooge as Marley’s ghost, or Dennis playing Bob Cratchit whilst reading his not-so-cunningly concealed lines, whether hidden under his colleague’s top hats, or pasted on the bottom of wine jugs, the result is disastrous fun.

**Chris Leask, Greg Tannahill and Daniel Fraser (c) Mark Senior**

Funnier still are the pay-offs from the bungled prep witnessed before the curtain lifted on Scrooge’s adventures. There’s more than a little of This is Spinal Tap to the joyful reveals, which I won’t spoil by describing. Suffice it to say, Libby Todd’s wonderfully bonkers set is the gift that keeps on giving.

Then there are the ghosts, whether it’s Annie vogueing it up as the Ghost of Christmas Past, complete with dummy legs, or Trevor and his silent yet ‘Scottish’ Ghost of Christmas Future, showing that a Cornley production is a bizarre affair even when it’s going ‘right’. Yet it’s when Robert tries and fails to erupt from an enormous Christmas present to be the ghost of said time period, that Christmas Carol Goes Wrong kicks into its highest gear of laugh-out-loud comedy.

Controlled chaos with a hint of heart

At its best, Mischief’s blend of joyful slapstick silliness, ambitious visual gags, and droll dialogue pitches somewhere between the glory days of 50’s UK cinema, and Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em. That is to say, they tap into a peculiarly British brand of humour undimmed by time’s passage and lethally funny in the right hands — and these are the right hands.

Yet it’s when Robert tries and fails to erupt from an enormous Christmas present to be the ghost of said time period, that Christmas Carol Goes Wrong kicks into its highest gear of laugh-out-loud comedy.

Ok, so this show lacks the absolute magnificence of The Play That Goes Wrong. Some scenes are more impressive than funny, such as Matt Cavendish’s turn as Max, who plays almost every supporting role in a show that wants thirty performers despite the company having fewer than a dozen. Whilst some of the foreshadowing proves more amusing than the payoff, there are still plenty of magnificently daft passages. Despite Director Matt DiCarlo’s best efforts, this show lacks the comedic momentum that makes their first show a risk to life.

(Kudos are, however, due to a company which has so many of the Mischief founding members in the touring company, whilst newer recruits to the fold hold the fort down in the West End)

There is also a rather charming, if rather obvious, subplot as Chris negotiates his own Scrooge-esque epiphany. The play certainly seeks to humanise the Cornley players more than its predecessors, and though this offers some suitably heartwarming festive scenes (particularly at the end), there’s not quite enough nuance to the characterisations to make this tickle the heartstrings as effectively as their capers do the funny bone.

In the final analysis, Mischief are such singular masters of this theatrical niche that even if this isn’t their masterpiece—a standard perhaps impossible to equal—it remains more entertaining and downright laugh-out-loud funny than almost anything else treading the boards today. It is big, clever, and accessible to all ages; a show guaranteed to send you into the Edinburgh night with your chuckle quota for the month matched, if not exceeded.

Featured Image: CCGW_Daniel_Fraser_and_Matt_Cavendish (c) Mark Senior