On October 6h, 7th, and 8th, The Mustang Theatre Company is performing ‘The Play That Goes Wrong,’ a murder mystery comedy gone off the rails. The play was selected and is being directed by resident theatre director Mr. Davids, who describes the play as, “A different kind of comedy than this particular crowd has seen before in a live performance,” later elaborating, “[The Play That Goes Wrong] has all the makings of a perfect textbook comedy, it has slapstick, it has physical comedy, it has dry humor, it lives in awkward silence, it literally hits comedy from all angles.”

Junior Emily Beeson, who portrays the character of Florence Colleymore, discusses her first reaction tor reading the script and getting cast, telling, “[When I read the script] I was extremely ecstatic because I saw the show at Thespian Festival, and I knew there were a lot of bits that I wasn’t able to see from that original production, so this means a lot to me, especially since I’ve been in theatre since 6th and this is my first lead role.”

“The funnest part [of being in this production] so far has been being in the grandfather clock, it’s been a whole lot of fun to do all these funny bits and the fight scenes, the fight scenes are so fun. Just really learning, it teaches me a lot about theatre,” shares Emily, resuming, “I think [the audience will] find it funny, I think they’ll laugh.”

Senior Jonny Rayburn, who plays the roles of Cecil Haversham and Arthur the Gardener, talks about the experience of acting in this play and being a part of the company, saying, “The intensive work is pretty engaging. The necessity to continuously practice to get the sharpness on the points is really fun as an actor to perfect every bit to make it flawless,” further stating that, “…by my sophomore year I was gonna drop out [of theater] but when I found out that Mr. Cody Davids was gonna become the main director, I was like ‘Ok, I’ll try for one more year,’ and turns out he has been the most amazing director for allowing me to expand upon my artistic skills. Now I kind of have a place in the school where I know that I am the lead of it- a place that’s like ‘my place’ where I know I can come back to, and that’s comforting.”

Jonny touches on what lead him to playing the role of Cecil Haversham, commenting, “[Cecil] is the comedic relief which I love playing, he breaks the 4th wall which I love doing, just everything he does I love doing as an actor so I knew that I wanted to play that role since we saw the show at the Thespian Festival last year.” Continuing, Jonny expresses his feelings towards being casted as Cecil, detailing, “I worked really hard before auditions and felt pretty good about them afterwards so once the cast list got out I felt pretty reassured and confident in my abilities.”

Finishing, Mr. Davids says, “The kids have been working their butts off… they show up everyday ready to do better, ready to get better, they’re making choices, they’re finding the fun, and they’re finding the elements that are gonna make this thing sell. This is kind of our guinea pig project, and I’m excited to see how the community responds to this style of comedy.” Performances of ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ will be held in the auditorium on September 6th through the 8th, all shows starting at 7PM. Tickets cost 5$ per student and 10$ per adult.