The Play That Goes Wrong,: Theatre Royal, Newcastle

IN dark economic days like these people want a good laugh and this provides a pleasant night of escapism. A play within a play, we are watching an Agatha Christie-style whodunnit called The Murder at Haversham Manor by Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society. It's decidedly amateur fare with stagehands (who become part of the cast) still fixing the set as we assemble to take our seats.

What follows is every problem ever witnessed on an amateur (and some professional) stage, multiplied ten-fold. Everything that can, goes wrong; from handles dropping off, doors not opening, the set collapsing, actors gurning at the audience, technical malfunctions, line prompts and dozens more. In farce there is a very thin line between what is good comedy and what is not so good.

For the most part, this treads that line well and on a number of occasions produced some comedy gold. However, farce is supposed to be believable and on a number of occasions, like the long set-piece when they were holding up wall fixtures and the telephone rang, the logical thing would have been to put the fixtures down and answer it. They didn't and it dragged.

Likewise, a stagehand caught on stage hides in a grandfather clock. In farcical situations the actor would be jumping in there to hide from authority or a jealous lover. Here, the stagehand could have exited the stage quite easily.

Les Dawson's awful (but brilliant) piano playing, was hilarious for a short time. At times this felt stretched past its limit, but overall it was good fun and well acted with excellent timing and, ironically, really good production values.

* Runs until Saturday, January 21. Box Office: theatreroyal.co.uk

Ed Waugh