Christmas Carol Goes Wrong - Theatre Royal Bath UK Tour - Review
- Becky Wallis
- 21 minutes ago
- 4 min read
It’s like painting the Forth Bridge, as soon as you finish you start again. It’s only been a couple of months since the Piccadilly Hotel closed up shop at the Noel Coward Theatre when ‘The Comedy About Spies’ played its final performance (let’s hope it comes back one day) but it is no rest for the wicked for Mischief Comedy, the masters of funny, as they present their second new production of 2025 ‘Christmas Carol Goes Wrong’.
Having premiered as a BBC Festive special back in 2017, this is the first time this production has come to the stage and as Cornley’s perhaps most ambitious attempt at serious drama, adapting Charles Dickens’ famous novel of learning your lesson and learning to change through the visits of four strange spirits to the rich, never shares, Christmas hating Ebenezer Scrooge. Once confined to the small screen, ‘Christmas Carol Goes Wrong’ comes to the stage with huge lavish sets (that may or may not behave themselves), beautiful costuming and hilarious moments that will have you aching from laughing so much.
Where the BBC version saw Cornley high jacking a television broadcast of ‘A Christmas Carol’ with their own less than traditional version, here we see the process of creating a show from start to end with the ever-chaotic Cornley, from auditions to performance. It is beautifully crafted by the genius trio of Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields who have created an escalating rollercoaster where every turn gets more frenzied and funnier by the moment, taking the TV special that we all love and transforming it into something bigger, better and altogether wonderful in a production that is guaranteed to win over even the audiences who are as grumpy as Scrooge himself.
Fresh from appearing in the 10th Anniversary cast of ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’, Daniel Fraser returns to the role of Chris Bean, taking the overly serious and at times cantankerous Cornley director to whole new levels. This Chris knows what he wants, and doesn’t care what it takes to get there, and it takes some serious skill to make a character this grouchy and at times just plain mean loveable, but thankfully that’s a skill that Fraser certainly has as he receives great applause throughout and makes his Chris perhaps the most layered and developed that the character as ever been. He was joined at this performance by his 10th Anniversary ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ co-star Dumile Sibanda playing the role of Annie, who is given many an opportunity to shine, especially as Fred, Scrooge’s always happy nephew, and the mysterious Ghost of Christmas Past.
Henry Lewis earns a cheer as soon as he steps on stage, back again to the role of self-proclaimed lead actor Robert Grove. The line ‘He’s completely incapacitated’ become famous in itself from the TV version, and here it is taken to extremes as we see Robert desperately trying to claim the role of Scrooge for himself, even if Chris is determinedly against the idea. It is in the role of The Ghost of Christmas Present in which Lewis gives a comedy masterclass that could quite possibly go down in history as it escalates into side splitting hilarity. Jonathan Sayer stars as his lovable but dim Dennis, playing Bob Cratchit and other roles, with one moment as a teacher proving in particular hilarious and applause earning. Just as with other Mischief shows within the Cornley Multiverse, you will find yourself within seconds simply willing Dennis on to succeed, no matter where his mistakes take him.
Original Mischief cast members Chris Leask and Greg Tannahill also return to this new Cornley production as stage manager Trevor and actor/model Jonathan respectively. Here poor Trevor has even more jobs to do than usual, including actually getting on stage, and not just accidently this time, and Jonathan is forced to face some fears in his multiple roles here, all to hilarious results. Matt Cavendish is on fine form as the ever happy, giggle prone Max, taking on countless roles to keep the show going and reacting to every mishap with a cheshire cat like grin. And Sasha Frost, a fresh face to the land of Mischief, completes the cast as the ever wishing to be famous Sandra, who gives her best emotive acting throughout to the fits of giggles from the audience. The cast at this performance also included Will Bishop and Siobhan Cha Cha as stagehands and other characters.
As someone who has been obsessed to incredibly high geekish levels with Cornley as a whole for many a year, I can proudly proclaim that this production has taken that obsession and accelerated it. We are used to seeing the Cornley Drama Society within the confines of their productions, like within the walls of Haversham Manor for example, playing their roles but rarely talking about themselves. ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ gave us a taste of their lives outside their performances, but this production adds new and simply brilliant layers as we see them as themselves, taking part in auditions, rehearsals and society meetings and there is something wonderfully clever and simply brilliant about that. Cornley is no longer just the name of the society, it is a real place with a playhouse, a canal, shops and the pub down the road, and the drama society are real fleshed out people that just so happen to call it home.
‘Christmas Carol Goes Wrong’ packs a punch with its wickedly funny comedy moments from beginning to end, whilst also cleverly weaving in some storylines that have some real heart, real truths and real believability in these characters that we thought we already knew.
With laugh out loud moments that will delight both young and old, silliness and chaos wrapped in a hug, and moments of pure bedlam that celebrates all things good old fashioned funny, Mischief can definitely add ‘Christmas Carol Goes Wrong’ to their ever growing list of success stories as they continue to prove them when it comes to making people laugh, they really are the best in the business.
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