Mischief, the theatre company behind multi-award-winning West End hit The Play That Goes Wrong, certainly lives up to its name. And the mischief continues at Leeds Grand Theatre this week with one of the company’s later plays, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, in which, you guessed it: everything that could go wrong, does.

The Cornley Drama Society, an amateur dramatics troupe, is putting on a production of J.M. Barrie’s classic, but from the outset, it’s a recipe for disaster: a pretentious director, an incompetent stage crew and amateur thespians horrendously out of their depth, teamed with love triangles, set malfunctions, costume catastrophes and countless concussions.



 The production oozes physical comedy: the farce and tomfoolery overspill into the aisles as the cast smash open the fourth wall to embroil their audience in this risible, ridiculous spectacle, in which all hell breaks loose.

Tinkerbell’s tutu is attached to the dodgy electricity supply and the flying system is flawed. John Darling can’t remember his lines, so must be fed them via headphones. The narrator struggles to hold the show together while a paramedic from the ‘real’ world, attending one of the play’s many casualties, becomes a reluctant extra.

I particularly enjoyed the wildly revolving set as the play reached peak bedlam. The cast do an astronomical job of pretending they don’t know what they’re doing – and I mean that in the best possible way.

Mischief’s play-within-a-play concept is outright genius, but I don’t need to tell you that. Two West End seasons, two UK tours, a transfer to Broadway, a BBC special starring David Suchet and an Olivier Award nomination says it all.  This play is the big guns, and Leeds’ captivated Tuesday audience was emphatically rolling in the aisles.



I was most definitely in the minority in thinking some gags were a little drawn out and overplayed, and some of the overt slapstick was a touch predictable. I had a smile on my face throughout, and chuckled hard and heartily a handful of times, but was not so overwhelmed with raucous laughter as most of my overjoyed neighbours were throughout. Perhaps I should have indulged in a glass of something pre-theatre.

For an amusing and silly evening’s entertainment, though, this is well worth a watch. The production dishes up sprightly, youthful – and just plain – fun, to remind us that, like Peter and the Lost Boys, we never really grow up.

Peter Pan Goes Wrong is at Leeds Grand Theatre until 20 January.

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