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Mischief Theatre
Mischief Theatre is a British theatre company that was founded in 2008 by a group of students from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in West London, and directed by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields. The group originally began by doing improvised comedy shows, but by 2012, they expanded into comedic theatrical performances that include choreographed routines, jokes, and stunts.
The company is primarily known for their comedic performances as the fictional theatre company, The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, enacting amateur performances that go wrong. Works by the company includes the award-winning 2012 stage play The Play That Goes Wrong and the BBC television series The Goes Wrong Show. Several of the stage performances by the company have been shown in the West End of London, and also in theaters throughout the United Kingdom and across North America and Europe.
Mischief Theatre was formed in 2008 by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields, while the three were studying in a drama foundation course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. The founders selected the company's members, a majority of which were attending the same course, including Dave Hearn, Nancy Zamit, Bryony Corrigan, and Niall Ransome. The company conducted its first performance, Let's See What Happens, at The Questors Studio Theatre in July 2008, which they later performed at The Edinburgh Festival the following month.
In 2012, Lewis, Sayer, and Shields devised the script for The Play That Goes Wrong, originally titled The Murder Before Christmas, a comedic play based on real-life accidents and problems that can occur in stage productions. With the play, the company branched into choreographed performances, including stage combat, stunts, and staged technical malfunctions. The play premiered in London later that year, went on multiple UK tours, and was featured at the 2015 Royal Variety Performance show. Lewis, Sayer, and Shields continued to devise new shows for Mischief Theatre, based on both improvisational comedy and scripted performances, including Lights! Camera! Improvise!, Late Night Impro Fight, and Mischief Movie Night.
The play Peter Pan Goes Wrong made its premiere at the Pleasance Theatre in London in December 2013 before touring the UK in 2014. The production transferred to the West End in London at the Apollo Theatre for a Christmas season run in 2015. In 2016, Mischief Theatre was approached by the BBC to conduct a televised Christmas special consisting of an adaptation of the stage play. The Peter Pan Goes Wrong adaptation proved a success, with the BBC later commissioning the company to develop a new Christmas special in 2017, A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong.
On 1 April 2020, Mischief Theatre began a weekly podcast titled "Mischief Makers", which focused on the members of the troupe. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mischief Theatre put on improvisational comedy shows (Mischief Movie Night) in open-air venues from late August to early September. They briefly took the show to the Vaudeville Theatre in December before national lockdown procedures caused venues to close, forcing their planned schedule to be cut short. To compensate for this, the company conducted their show online, under the title Mischief Movie Night In.
The company is most well known for their series of "Goes Wrong" productions wherein they portray the fictional Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, struggling to perform amateur shows as they slowly fall apart. In-universe, the troupe is composed of university students who spend their free time outside of classes producing shows, though in recent years their televised work has been supported by the BBC. For non-European audiences, they are presented as the Cornley University Drama Society.
The characters are maintained across all of the company's "Goes Wrong" productions (with the exception of Magic Goes Wrong), and their personalities are fleshed out over time. Members of Mischief therefore portray their Cornley characters while also portraying the characters of whatever play they are doing in-universe.
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Mischief Theatre
Mischief Theatre is a British theatre company that was founded in 2008 by a group of students from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in West London, and directed by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields. The group originally began by doing improvised comedy shows, but by 2012, they expanded into comedic theatrical performances that include choreographed routines, jokes, and stunts.
The company is primarily known for their comedic performances as the fictional theatre company, The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, enacting amateur performances that go wrong. Works by the company includes the award-winning 2012 stage play The Play That Goes Wrong and the BBC television series The Goes Wrong Show. Several of the stage performances by the company have been shown in the West End of London, and also in theaters throughout the United Kingdom and across North America and Europe.
Mischief Theatre was formed in 2008 by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields, while the three were studying in a drama foundation course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. The founders selected the company's members, a majority of which were attending the same course, including Dave Hearn, Nancy Zamit, Bryony Corrigan, and Niall Ransome. The company conducted its first performance, Let's See What Happens, at The Questors Studio Theatre in July 2008, which they later performed at The Edinburgh Festival the following month.
In 2012, Lewis, Sayer, and Shields devised the script for The Play That Goes Wrong, originally titled The Murder Before Christmas, a comedic play based on real-life accidents and problems that can occur in stage productions. With the play, the company branched into choreographed performances, including stage combat, stunts, and staged technical malfunctions. The play premiered in London later that year, went on multiple UK tours, and was featured at the 2015 Royal Variety Performance show. Lewis, Sayer, and Shields continued to devise new shows for Mischief Theatre, based on both improvisational comedy and scripted performances, including Lights! Camera! Improvise!, Late Night Impro Fight, and Mischief Movie Night.
The play Peter Pan Goes Wrong made its premiere at the Pleasance Theatre in London in December 2013 before touring the UK in 2014. The production transferred to the West End in London at the Apollo Theatre for a Christmas season run in 2015. In 2016, Mischief Theatre was approached by the BBC to conduct a televised Christmas special consisting of an adaptation of the stage play. The Peter Pan Goes Wrong adaptation proved a success, with the BBC later commissioning the company to develop a new Christmas special in 2017, A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong.
On 1 April 2020, Mischief Theatre began a weekly podcast titled "Mischief Makers", which focused on the members of the troupe. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mischief Theatre put on improvisational comedy shows (Mischief Movie Night) in open-air venues from late August to early September. They briefly took the show to the Vaudeville Theatre in December before national lockdown procedures caused venues to close, forcing their planned schedule to be cut short. To compensate for this, the company conducted their show online, under the title Mischief Movie Night In.
The company is most well known for their series of "Goes Wrong" productions wherein they portray the fictional Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, struggling to perform amateur shows as they slowly fall apart. In-universe, the troupe is composed of university students who spend their free time outside of classes producing shows, though in recent years their televised work has been supported by the BBC. For non-European audiences, they are presented as the Cornley University Drama Society.
The characters are maintained across all of the company's "Goes Wrong" productions (with the exception of Magic Goes Wrong), and their personalities are fleshed out over time. Members of Mischief therefore portray their Cornley characters while also portraying the characters of whatever play they are doing in-universe.