Christmas Carol Goes Wrong - Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury

I was excited to be in Aylesbury Waterside Theatre last night as if it were Christmas.  Actually, despite it being the beginning of February, it was Christmas as I was there to see Mischief’s Christmas Carol Goes Wrong.  I dressed up in a tinsel jumper and even bumped into Andy Collins who is a resident thespian for the Aylesbury panto.  It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

I have seen all the ‘goes wrong’ series and loved them all.  I would normally say that my sense of humour is more sarcastic than slapstick, but there is something adorable about the Cornley Theatre company that I truly love.  Could it be my years of doing am dram myself that aligns me with it so much, so I totally get the sense of humour. I almost feel I could join the Cornley Theatre company myself!

Christmas Carol goes wrong is exactly that.  The director of Cornley Theatre company, Chris Bean, played by Daniel Fraser is exactly the controlling, organising and need to be the lead thespian who loves serious theatre that those of us who have been in amateur dramatics will recognise.  Daniel is brilliant in the role and delivers the character to perfection as Chris does his best to keep the show going despite a few mishaps.

I loved Robert played by Henry Lewis.  Robert wants the lead but as Chris has taken it for himself (unless he is seriously incapacitated) guess what Robert is trying to do?  Henry has a voice like Brian Blessed and is a force to be reckoned with.  I love Henry’s performance and especially when Robert was doing his audition, he did almost every other Christmas film you can imagine than the show they were planning.  Now that is absolutely my sense of humour and I was laughing so loudly.

Dennis Tyde (played by Jonathan Sayer) is not good at remembering his lines so to help him his lines are set up on props around the stage. Of course, if he accidentally picks the wrong prop up in the wrong order, it could go disastrously wrong, yet we want him to succeed.  Jonathan is so believable in the role and helps us take Dennis into our hearts – but lord only knows what Chris was thinking to give him the role of Bob Cratchit.  Annie is played by Dumile Sibanda and she is the happiest member of the group.  I did feel a little sorry for her playing a man in the play, but I myself have been there and done that so understand that in a small theatre group you take the roles on offer.

Of course, there are gags that are set up.  The bags for money and snow get muddled up and it rains money and Scrooge pays for his goose with snow.  He even tells the boy you may have to haggle hard for that goose.  And I loved him breaking the fourth wall when he asked what day it is and the boy wasn’t there so the audience helped out.  I do not want to ruin the show for you by sharing much more but trust me, this is the funniest thing you will see all year.

Even at the end of the show when the cast talked about the other shows they have around the country, saying that it’s near us in Colchester made me laugh…but he said he is from the north and its all ‘just south’.  That’s exactly what I think about the north!

CHRISTMAS CAROL GOES WRONG is at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre this week, direct from it’s strictly limited West End run.  Don’t miss this guaranteed Christmas catastrophe from Mischief, the multi award-winning company behind The Play That Goes Wrong, Peter Pan Goes Wrong and The Comedy About a Bank Robbery.  All I can say is have a second Christmas and get yourself down to Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury this week.  And if you believe hard enough, it can be Christmas.  As I left the theatre, it started to snow.  Now that is the real magic of Christmas!

Christmas Carol Goes Wrong is at Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury until 7 February and then continues its UK Tour.