Lyric Theatre (studio)
29 November 2025 (released)
02 December 2023
A laugh-out-loud blend of slapstick, dark farce and stage magic, Mischief Theatre Peter Pan Goes Wrong guarantees belly laughs for all the right reasons.
The show is about a decade old yet still fresh and funny. The setup is familiar for fans of its predecessor. Like The Play That Goes Wrong before it, we are in the hands of the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, a motley crew of amateur actors and an even more amateur director putting on a production which slowly but surely ends in utter calamity. Given its many moving parts, it is a minor miracle that Peter Pan Goes Wrong goes right night after night.
The show-within-a-show-within-a-show has the classic JM Barrie characters come to life through a fictional cast, each with their own personality: one can’t remember his words so is fed lines through a huge pair of headphones, another is there only thanks to his parents’ largesse, two of them are sleeping together and there’s a raging verbal battle between the official director and his assistant (who prefers the title “co-director”).
On top of all of that, the director wants to put on a straight play while everyone else (including much of the audience) would rather this was a panto. Cue loud, joyous shouting from the auditorium of “he’s behind you”, “oh yes it is/oh no it’s not” etc. This element of audience interaction lifts this show a notch above The Play, pulling us in and lifting us up to beyond mere observers.
The chief criticism of Peter Pan Goes Wrong is its similarity to The Play That Goes Wrong - and more than just the names. Anyone who has seen one will know roughly what to expect from the other: inept stagehands, a variety of painful mishaps, a set that is as fragile as the egos and emotional setups that pay off in the leadup to a frenetic conclusion. That said, the script, the stage design and the direction are all top tier here: line after line landing with hilarious effect and the story is paced just right and knows when to run and when to just pause and let it all sink in. Both plays are a marvel of wit and wonder that are surefire winners for all the family.
Peter Pan Goes Wrong continues at Lyric Theatre until 14 January.
Photo credit: Pamela Raith Photography
