The play that goes wrong....goes right???!!!!!
On Nov. 14, Samo Theatre’s ‘Scotch’ Cast performed “The Play That Goes Wrong,” written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields for their first of six showings, followed by the ‘Paint Thinner’ Cast on Nov. 15. The cast and crew did an excellent job bringing a massive catastrophe to the parents and students of Samo. The humanities center was filled with laughter as soon as the lights dimmed to begin the show.
“The Play That Goes Wrong” is exactly that—a play within a play that goes terribly wrong. Before the show started, many cast members could be seen frantically preparing for the play, greeting many members of the audience and searching for a dog. Tegan Blaine (’26) played the role of the play’s director who doubles as the inspector. Following a brief introduction by the director, the play begins with the mysterious death of Charles, played by Alejandro Poza (’26), and the launching of a lengthy and disastrous plot.
The play encounters many issues as the show continues, coat hangers, paintings and shelves fall. Winston, the dog, is still missing, items are misplaced and the scotch somehow disappears! Instead, the bottle was replaced with a flammable and highly corrosive liquid, which the actors are continuously forced to drink. Along with this, the cast also has to contend with one another as Annie, an impromptu replacement played by Tate Daley (’26), vies to take the spotlight from Florence, played by Sahar Aguilar (’26), by any means necessary. Daley explains some of the difficulties she and others encountered when preparing for the play.
“It's extra difficult [compared to other plays], ” Daley said. “You would think, ‘Oh, it's supposed to go wrong, so you can just mess up whatever you want.’ That's actually not true. You actually can't mess up at all, because if you mess up and something that's supposed to go wrong goes wrong in a wrong way, it'll actually hurt somebody. So you have to be so much more focused and in it for this show than for any other one I've been in.”
“The Play Goes Wrong” goes beyond just the people on stage. From the careful and precise lighting, to the set design, where every piece of the set needs to break in a certain way to be safe for actors. Dozens of students and faculty worked tirelessly to bring this play to life through directing, costumes, sound, set design and lights.
Each cast member’s dedication to their roles showed through their performances, creating a great mix of emotion with humor. Brianna de Veyra (’26) showed a range of emotions and personality throughout the play. The writing all over her arms to remember lines and her panic as they repeated the same scene multiple times, left the audience gripped to her character throughout. Despite some unexpected mishaps that were not meant to happen, such as the grandfather clock’s bottom hinge breaking, the cast was able to smoothly play it off as another piece of the play going wrong.
Christian Oxman (’26), the Lighting Designer for the play, details his experience behind the scenes and in preparation for the shows.
“[Tech joined the rest of the cast around] two and a half weeks ago. In the first week, we would do parts that needed more work, and we would just run those constantly. Now, we've just been doing full runs. So we do two full runs a day.” Oxman said.