Review: THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG is a Riot at The Ruth

The Play That Goes Wrong is a riotous good time in the Lindsay Legacy Theater, the smaller of two new performance spaces for The Ruth and Nathan Hale Theater (The Ruth), formerly known as Hale Center Theater Orem. Located on the dōTERRA campus in Pleasant Grove, the new theater maintains the intimacy the company is known and loved for while continuing to raise the bar.

The Play That Goes Wrong, by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields, is ostensibly the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society's production of whodunit The Murder at Haversham Manor. When a man is murdered, his fiancé, brother, and friend are all suspects. But the bigger mystery is how the actors continue their performance through seemingly everything that could possibly go wrong in a community theatre production. From set and prop mishaps to forgotten lines to performer injury, the show must go on...ingeniously and hilariously.

No cast members can really be singled out in an ensemble like this in which all the pieces work together effortlessly to make the whole.

They include Darci Ramirez as Annie (double cast with Kennedy Bradford), Luke Logan as Trevor (double cast with Ian Webb), Samuel Wright as Chris/Inspector Carter (double cast with Adam Packard), Charlie Flint as Robert/Thomas Colleymoore (double cast with Bryson Smellie), Chad Brown as Jonathan/Charles Haversham (double cast with Langi Tuifua), Adrian Alita as Dennis/Perkins (double cast with Dallin Bradford), Brett Jamison as Max/Cecil (double cast with Dylan Thomas), and Heather Shelley as Sandra/Florence (double cast with Christie Gardiner).

The direction by Barta Heiner and assistant direction/fight choreography by Ben Henderson have fine-tuned the madcap timing with well-oiled precision.

The set is impressively designed by Jason Baldwin to be not only aesthetically pleasing but also capable of innumerable issues that appear to be spontaneous but actually require careful planning.

The prop design by Megan Heaps and lighting design by Michael Gray are additional partners in crime, making many of these feats possible.

The costume design by Kim Wright and hair/makeup design by Emilie Ronhaar put just the right finishing touches on the whole experience. 

The Play That Goes Wrong plays through August 16, 2025.  For tickets, call the box office at 801-226-8600 or visit www.theruth.org.

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