The Play That Goes Wrong to re-open in West End and play festive season in Bath

Producers of Olivier award-winning box office hit, The Play That Goes Wrong, will resume performances at the Duchess Theatre from 19 November 2020.

It has also been announced that the UK touring cast will play a limited Christmas run at Theatre Royal Bath, from 17 December 2020 - 10 January 2021.

Written by Mischief Theatre’s Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, the show is directed by Mark Bell, with set design by Nigel Hook, costumes by Roberto Surace, lighting by Ric Mountjoy and sound by Andy Johnson.

The writers and director are working on restaging certain moments within the play to ensure it complies with current government guidelines.

The West End cast confirmed to appear are: Blayar Benn (Trevor), Milo Clarke (Max), Ross Green (Chris), Elan James (Jonathan), Michael Keane (Dennis), David Kirkbride (Robert), Ciara Morris (Annie) and Ellie Morris (Sandra). The understudies will be Tom Bulpett, Oliver Clayton, Antonia Salib and Jack Michael Stacey.

The audience capacity has been reduced to allow for social distancing and there will be hand sanitising stations, temperature checks, contactless tickets and deep cleaning of the theatre between performances. Attendees must wear a face covering throughout and provide the necessary details for test and trace purposes.

Producers of the West End production, Kenny Wax and Stage Presence Ltd, said: "The Play That Goes Wrong has been a tonic for people's spirits since first appearing seven years ago. We know how many thousands of performances have been on stage, how many people have bought tickets and how many hundreds of people have been employed.

“Laughter has the power to bring people together across all divides, reduces tensions and produces joy. And we know how lacking all of those have been these challenging past six months.

“So we count ourselves fortunate that our show is of a size where it is possible to re-open now, and while playing to the smaller-sized audience that social distancing requires, costs can just about be covered. Tickets from £15, Laughs priceless."

Wax added: "We are one of a handful of small / middle scale productions who have low enough running costs to open with a socially distanced audience and even though we are unlikely to be able to make a profit we will be employing about 60 staff across the two productions in London and Bath. But we are still taking a significant risk without a government backed insurance scheme to cover further business cancellation due to COVID '19.

Our continual asks of government are (1) lift social distancing (2) provide a government backed insurance scheme"

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