Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Charlie Russell, Greg Tannahill, Dave Hearn. Henry Shields, Jonathan Sayer, Bryony Corrigan, Henry Lewis, Nancy Zamit.
If necessity is the mother of invention, then the company behind the uplifting farce that is provided in the comedy gold of The Goes Wrong Show are an inevitability of circumstance, time, and creation, an innovation that has no boundaries when it comes to placing trust in the conception of a well-timed slapstick moment and the televised charade of mock indignity. If necessity truly is the mother of invention, then the team are the 21st Century equivalent of every true original that ever-brought laughter to the audiences.
Timing is everything in comedy, without it the wheels of observation come grinding to halt, and when a programme, or indeed a theatrical experience, resolutely bangs the drum for the genre in an era of national doubt and distrust, it is to the group that the laughter is joyfully received, and as the second series of The Goes Wrong Show gets under way with the superb clowning of Summer Once Again, the timing of it could not be more welcome, more astute and essential.
The return of Charlie Russell, Greg Tannahill, Dave Hearn. Henry Shields, Jonathan Sayer, Bryony Corrigan, Henry Lewis and Nancy Zamit to the screens in the guises of the inept Cornley Drama Society is to acknowledge that whilst there is some outrageously good comedy around, it has taken the writing of Messer’s Lewis, Shields and Sayer, and the all-round agility and ability of the cast to bring a shine to time we find ourselves in.
The sense of rhythm that the show exists in is intense and physical, and Summer Once Again typifies this substantial effort that is created by the team, the quick fire ending in which the talented Charlie Russell speedily reads through her lines when urged by Henry Lewis in his guise as the returning soldier/son is demonstrably sharp, and in the way that the team push Bryony Corrigan to be the one to endure the majority of the slapstick is astute, for as she withstands blows that would have the great Charlie Chaplin reeling, the latest half hour production blooms and shines acutely.
More than a great return, and despite the pressures that all theatre companies, theatre, television, and even film crews, have had to endure in the last 18 months, it is fair to say that The Goes Wrong Show is once more sparkling in the season of comedy.
Ian D. Hall