Following the success of Olivier Award winning The Play That Goes Wrong, Mischief Theatre now brings us Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society’s attempt to carry off a big budget production of JM Barrie’s classic tale. With over-ambitious set and special effects galore on the agenda, there are plenty of things that can go wrong; and if they can, they will. Before the show starts, there is a foretaste of the chaos to come, with cast members peering out nervously from behind the curtains, the technical team sealing off areas of seating with hazard warning tape underneath a perilously positioned light, and searching for a lost hammer. Undaunted, the energetic amateur cast really hurl themselves into their performance - sometimes literally. They are a committed and determined bunch: their sound system may backfire, their costumes may fall apart and their set may be collapsing all around them – but the show must go on.

The hazardous set has a life of its own. It is a disaster waiting to happen, with the cast getting stuck in doors, crashing into things and being crashed into, disappearing from view thanks to overenthusiastic smoke machines, and occasionally being plunged into sudden darkness. There are disastrous pyrotechnics, exploding circuit boards, brakeless wheelchairs, see-sawing scenery, glitter that gets everywhere and a revolving stage which won’t stop revolving.

And then there’s the cast: a stroppy director, Chris; his ‘experienced’ co-director Robert, who performs undeterred as the young Michael despite his girth and greying beard; a flirty leading lady, Sandra, with a penchant for interpretive dance; Annie, whose multiple doubling between housemaid, mother, Tinkerbell and Tigerlily has her rushing around the stage usually in various stages of disarray between costume changes; the adorable Max who is only being allowed to play the crocodile because of his uncle’s generous donation to the show; the long-suffering Stage Manager who has to save them all from being swallowed alive by the set... Between them all run the most disastrous cast dynamics and hidden tensions, which threaten to turn the play into a fiasco – or would if it wasn’t already.

The performance is breathtaking. Moving along at breakneck speed, the actors must have almost psychic synchronisation with each other to be able to pull it off with no real accidents! The show is bursting with chaotic physical comedy. One slapstick catastrophe slides into the next so naturally and instantaneously it is impossible to believe that this mayhem has actually been choreographed. It is like watching a dozen artless Norman Wisdoms colliding with each other. This is a spectacular show to see, hilarious and not a little nerve-racking. When the actors make it through to the end, bruised, battered and bandaged, we are as relieved as they are. By the end, the show is more than just a relentless string of physical gags: it is a heartwarming tribute to human resourcefulness and resilience in the face of adversity.