“Play On!” is a comedy by the prolific American writer and playwright Jack Sharkey under the penname of Rick Abbot (he had several others as well). Perhaps his best-known work is the novelisation of the TV series “The Addams Family”.
“Play On!” was written in 1980 and is a play within a play about an incompetent amateur theatre group trying to put on a play. Interestingly, around the same time playwrights David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr started writing their series of very funny Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society plays, which are also about the exploits of a hapless theatre group. In 1982 Michael Frayn published his iconic “Noises Off” which deals with the antics of a theatre company putting on a play, and if that isn’t enough, the hilarious “The Play That Goes Wrong” by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields premiered in London in 2012. It too is about an ill-fated theatre company trying to put on a murder mystery and, as the title suggests, absolutely everything that can go wrong does! “The Play That Goes Wrong” was so successful the writers produced more in the series, just as McGillivray and Zerlin did thirty years earlier.
So, the genre of comedies about theatre companies struggling to put on a play is well populated, perhaps too well. This reviewer has seen, and greatly enjoyed, numerous productions in the Farndale series, Noises Off, the Play That Go Wrong series, and now Play On!, and the latter is perhaps the weakest of all the scripts. Play On! does have genuinely funny moments but just not enough of them.
In “Play On!”, the well-meaning but doomed amateur theatre group tries to stage a murder mystery called Murder Most Foul, but …. the inexperienced and incompetent author keeps changing the script and won’t stay away from rehearsals (and performances!), the actors can’t remember their lines (or their cues or their accents or how to use various hand-props or how to produce decent characterisations etc. You name it, they can’t do it!). Chaos snowballs through rehearsals to opening night, where almost everything that can go wrong does – with (what should be) hilarious results. It’s pure theatrical carnage.
The key to successful comedy is usually playing it “straight” – not playing for laughs – and letting the comedy inherent in the script come through. If it’s written well enough, and performed well enough, it usually does. “Play On!” requires meticulous timing and deadpan delivery, because there’s nothing quite as funny as actors failing spectacularly while pretending they’re nailing it. The cast in Phoenix Variety and Music Group’s production work hard to nail it, but they often work too hard and consequently their timing is frequently off, and the acting is forced. Frequently the audience is mindful that the cast members are ‘acting’ instead of ‘being’ characters. This is the challenge of the genre: ‘cast members’ playing less than competent ‘actors’ playing ‘characters’ in a play that is not very good and plagued with production issues. It’s a tall ask, and in this production cast members don’t always draw sufficient distinction between the ‘actors’ and their ‘characters’.
Sara Petruzzella played ‘Aggie Manville’, the ‘role’ of the stage manager, and perhaps had the easiest job: she didn’t have to play an actor playing a role. Having said that, her performance was nuanced when needed, such as her antics during act 3, which was the opening night performance of the play within the play. As one disaster followed another, ‘Manville’ was forced to intervene, and Petruzzella was dead pan in her characterisation. It was funny. Jeshua Paterson played the role of ‘Louis Pearly’, the technician, who was constantly plagued with difficulties and an unhelpful cast. The printed program explicitly draws our attention to the fact that Paterson has autism and a mild intellectual disability, and director John Martin sensitively uses this to advantage. Paterson’s ‘Pearly’ is unforgiving, stubborn and focussed with tunnel vision. Bianca Cook plays ‘Geraldine Dunbar’, the director of the play within the play. Late in the play ‘Dunbar’ apologises to her cast for being too tough on them, but she rarely was, and Cook was almost always too calm in the face of chaos. Jamie Morman plays ‘Henry Benish’ (who plays ‘Lord Dudley’). He is at his best in act 3 when the focus is just on ‘Lord Dudley’. Rachel Fletcher plays ‘Polly Benish’ (who plays ‘Lady Margaret’) and is humorous as ‘Polly’ when she reveals her suspicion and jealousy of her husband ‘Henry’ who enjoys the attention of the younger ladies in the cast. Justine Lewis plays ‘Marla Smith’ (who plays ‘Doris’, the maid) but struggles to differentiate between ‘actor’ and ‘character’. A lot of her frenetic activity is always hyper-exaggerated. David Richardson plays ‘Saul Watson’ (who plays Dr Forbes’) and gives us a few funny moments with props and a death scene. Shawn Newband plays ‘Billy Carewe’ (who plays ‘Stephen Sellers’). Newband is relatively new to the stage and was often successful at differentiating ‘Carewe’ from ‘Sellers’. Rounding out the large cast is Deirdre Quinn who plays ‘Phyllis Montague’, the author of the play within the play. Quinn’s ‘Montague’ is larger than life and is dressed like a seasoned Madam Arcati! Her Montague is loud, annoying, and ditsy. There are some fun moments.
There are ten in the cast, but the stage is very small and there is barely room for them and the simple but effective box set. Consequently, director John Martin is somewhat constrained in how he moves his cast around the acting space.
Phoenix Variety and Music Group have chosen a play that is very difficult to do well, and they made a reasonable fist of it, and the audience frequently laughed out loud. Mission accomplished.
