Mischief Theatre

The Mischief Theatre Company
The Mischief Theatre founded in 2008 by a group of graduates and students of The London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art.
Formation 2008
Type Theatre group
Purpose Comedy
Location
  • United Kingdom
Artistic director(s)
 Henry Lewis
Jonathan Sayer
Henry Shields
Website http://www.mischieftheatre.co.uk

Mischief Theatre is a British theatre company specialising in comedy. The company was founded in 2008 by a group of students from The London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art[1] in West London. Since its inception the company has performed scripted and improvised comedy in the West End, across the UK, and in Europe and Asia.

Ensemble

Mischief Theatre's ensemble members are: Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, Dave Hearn, Harry Kershaw, Charlie Russell, Josh Elliott, Mike Bodie, Nancy Wallinger, Henry Shields, Niall Ransome, Bryony Corrigan and Rob Falconer.

The company is led by Artistic Director Henry Lewis and Company Director Jonathan Sayer.[2]

History

Mischief Theatre performed their first show Let's See What Happens[3] on Tuesday 15 July 2008 at The Questors Studio Theatre in Ealing. Let's See What Happens ran at The Questors Theatre for a week before it moved to The Edinburgh Festival the following month. Since then Mischief Theatre has produced three more of its own improvised shows: Lights! Camera! Improvise!,[4] Late Night Impro Fight[5] and Improvaganza and scripted shows including; The Murder Before Christmas,[6] Mogic and The Buffoons.

The Mischief Theatre Company was formerly known as The Scat Pack.[7]

Notable productions

The Play That Goes Wrong

The Play That Goes Wrong[8] is a play by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields. It premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre in London in 2012,[9] moved to Trafalgar Studios in 2013,[10] toured the UK and internationally in 2014 and opened to the Duchess Theatre in the West End on 14 September 2014. In the play The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society attempt to put on a 1920s murder mystery, but the performance is beset with disasters and the accident prone cast struggled through every scene.

It won Best New Comedy at the 2015 Laurence Olivier Awards and Best New Comedy at the WhatsOnStage.com Awards in 2014[11]

Its run in London's West End at the Duchess Theatre was extended until February 2016.[12]

Foreign language productions of The Play that Goes Wrong have also been presented in France,[13] Israel and Italy.

Productions were due to open in China, United States, Australia, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Greece, Israel, Scandinavia, Brazil, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Argentina, Uruguay, Turkey, New Zealand, Singapore, Philippines and South Africa.

The Comedy About a Bank Robbery

The Comedy About a Bank Robbery is a comedy play, written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, who are members of Mischief Theatre Company.[14] The play opened at the West End's Criterion Theatre on 31 March 2016, with an official opening night on 21 April 2016. The show is currently booking until April 2018.

Original cast included: Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, Jonathan Sayer, Nancy Zamit, Dave Hearn, Charlie Russell, Greg Tannahill, Jeremy Lloyd & Chris Leask

The play is directed by Mark Bell, with set design by David Farley and costume design by Roberto Surace.[15]

Peter Pan Goes Wrong

Peter Pan Goes Wrong is a comedy play by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields in the 'Goes Wrong' range. It premiered at the Pleasance Theatre in London in December 2013 before touring the UK in 2014 and 2015,[16] and in December 2015 it opened at London's Apollo Theatre.[17] Following widespread critical acclaim, Peter Pan Goes Wrong returned to the Apollo Theatre for a limited run from 21 October 2016 – 29 January 2017.[18]

The play is adapted from the original stage play Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie and in it the inept and accident prone Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society set out to present the classic tale of Peter Pan with comical and disastrous results.

The production was nominated for two Off West End Awards[19] for Best Production and Best Ensemble.

Lights! Camera! Improvise!

Lights! Camera! Improvise! is an improvised comedy show format devised and performed by Mischief Theatre.[20] The show was first presented at The Edinburgh Festival in August 2009[21] and has since been performed across the UK and internationally as well as at The Duchess Theatre in the West End.

In the show a film collector named Oscar invites the audience to suggest genres, locations and a title for a film which he then finds in his extensive DVD collection. A company of six or seven performers then improvise a longform narrative based on these ideas under the direction of Oscar.

In 2013 the production won a Spirit of the Fringe Award at Edinburgh Festival.

In 2017 the show, renamed Mischief Movie Night, began a limited run at The Arts Theatre in London's West End.

Television productions

Peter Pan Goes Wrong was adapted for a one-hour television special which was broadcast on 31 December 2016 on BBC One. It featured almost the entire original cast (with the exception of Rob Falconer) and guest starred David Suchet as the narrator.[22]

On 30 December 2017, A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong aired on BBC One, featuring both Dame Diana Rigg and Sir Derek Jacobi. Following the events of the previous year, the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society have now been blacklisted by the BBC. Determined to get back on the air, they hijack a live broadcast of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.[23]

References

  1. ↑ "Peter Pan Goes Wrong to be broadcast on the BBC this Christmas". What's On Stage. 15 August 2016. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  2. ↑ "About Us". Mischief Theatre. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  3. ↑ "Mischief Theatre on the theatre, the West End and things that go wrong!". Performance Reviewed. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  4. ↑ "Lights Camera Improvise". Nimax Theatres. Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  5. ↑ "Late Night Impro Fight". The List.
  6. ↑ Lines, Sarah. "The Murder Before Christmas - Old Red Lion Theatre". The Good Review.
  7. ↑ http://www.remotegoat.com/uk/group_view.php?uid=1881
  8. ↑ "The Play That Goes Wrong". www.theplaythatgoeswrong.com. Retrieved 2015-10-28.
  9. ↑ "Sheer Schadenfreude: The Play That Goes Wrong at the Old Red Lion Theatre". One Stop Arts. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  10. ↑ Spencer, Charles. "The Play That Goes Wrong, Trafalgar Studios, Review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  11. ↑ "Full List: Winners of the 2014 WhatsOnStage Awards". Whats On Stage.
  12. ↑ "The Play That Goes Wrong". Nimax Theatres. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  13. ↑ "Les Faux British". Théâtre Tristan-Bernard. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  14. ↑ "Olivier Winners Stage Bank Robbery". officiallondontheatre.co.uk. Official London Theatre. 3 December 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  15. ↑ "Play That Goes Wrong team launches new West End show". thestage.co.uk. The Stage. 3 December 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  16. ↑ "Upcoming Shows". Mischief Theatre. Archived from the original on 28 May 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  17. ↑ "Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Apollo Theatre)". What's On Stage. 10 December 2015. Retrieved 2018-01-01.
  18. ↑ "Show". Peter Pan Goes Wrong. Retrieved 17 Oct 2016.
  19. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140715130741/http://www.offwestend.com/index.php/pages/the_offies
  20. ↑ "Lights! Camera! Improvise!". Nimax Theatres. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  21. ↑ Hawkins, Rowena. "Edinburgh Review: Lights! Camera! Improvise! – The Improvised Movie, Pleasance Courtyard". A Younger Theatre. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  22. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b087kcrn
  23. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09kknsy
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