The Play That Goes Wrong

The Play That Goes Wrong at Spencer Theatre At Kansas City Repertory Theatre

A 1920s drawing-room murder mystery promises elegance, poise and a clever detective piecing together clues. What happens when the acting troupe staging it can barely keep the walls standing? The Play That Goes Wrong at Kansas City Repertory Theatre's Spencer Theatre follows the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society as they attempt to present The Murder at Haversham Manor—a fictional whodunit that quickly becomes a disaster only the audience gets to fully appreciate.

Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, this physical comedy thrives on the gap between theatrical aspiration and onstage chaos. The amateur performers struggle with an unstable set, furniture that won't cooperate and lines that vanish from memory at the worst possible moment. Even the murder victim refuses to stay convincingly dead. Each attempt to salvage the show only deepens the catastrophe.

The pleasure here is double-layered. You're watching a murder mystery unfold—sort of—while simultaneously watching well-meaning actors lose control of everything around them. Stuart Carden directs KCRep's production, which turns scripted mishaps into carefully orchestrated farce. The story you came to see collides with the story of people desperately trying to tell it, and both threads tangle into something funnier than either could manage alone.

Secure your seats for The Play That Goes Wrong in Kansas City.