Performed last weekend, Cathedral Catholic’s latest comedic and disastrous play, The Play That Goes Wrong, takes the audience inside a play within a play where everything goes wrong, but intentionally.
Wyatt Kirby, a freshman at CCHS, played Max. Max is a naive boy eager for attention and a first time actor. “My character’s inexperience makes him clumsy, but he’s just trying to get by and make the show fun,” Kirby explained. Kirby felt that the trickiest scene to perform was the scene where Sandra gets stuck in a clock, which required a delicately constructed wheeled set piece. However, his favorite moment onstage was a passionate scene with another actor, Trevor, that created an eruption of laughter in the audience.
Junior Lorenzo Lujan, who played Trevor Watson, the unhappy light and sound operator who’s coerced to act as Florence. Lujan found that one of the hardest scenes to perform was carrying Sandra offstage after she was knocked unconscious. “There’s a very specific timing we have to hit, and we barely managed to get it right before opening night,” Lujan explained. His most treasured onstage moment came when Trevor is forced to act as Florence, the scene that got the loudest laughter from the audience. “It’s really hard not to start laughing, but it’s so much fun to play,” he also mentioned how the scene lets him have a staged ‘power nap’ onstage.
Beyond the spectacular performances that the drama department brings to CCHS, it also brings a sense of community. Through bringing students together to work together and support each other, and offering a chance for students to make new friends.
Sophomore Dylan Hill appreciated CCHS’s shift from serious dramas to a comedy. “It was really fun to do something so different, a comedy where everything is supposed to go wrong,” Hill said. He also applauded the cast and crew for their incredible teamwork even during unexpected moments. “One night, a cast member couldn’t perform part of the script, so we had to improvise and skip a few pages, it still worked, and was hilarious.” He believes the crew’s improvisation and lively energy made the play one of the most memorable ones. “This might be one of the best shows we’ve ever done, the energy, the laughs, everything was just amazing,” Hill concluded.
The drama program at CCHS can be separated from other drama programs due to its balance of creativity and community. The drama program isn’t afraid to perform complex, bold, and unconventional shows such as The Play That Goes Wrong, a comedy filled with chaos.
Behind the scenes of this play and every other performance at CCHS, it is significant that the countless hours the crew behind the scenes, and in the scenes is acknowledged. Perfecting the timing, rehearsing lines, and building complex sets, the drama crew’s hard work has been clear through their astonishing performances, especially the memorable comedic play, The Play That Goes Wrong.
The intentional mistakes like props falling and broken furniture, clumsy characters always tripping, and comedic timing in The Play That Goes Wrong, made for a memorable play in Cathedral Catholic’s drama program.
