Paul Kuhn’s character appears to have expired on the couch as Ophelia Wise, left, as the inspector arrives in a scene from “The Play That Goes Wrong” being staged this month by the Ilwaco High School Drama Club. With them, reacting to the drama are Jessica Garcia and Evan Metzger, plus Jace Linthakhan, whose character picked a bad moment to bring in drinks.

Most theater directors hope everything goes well during each performance.

Rachel Lake and members of the Ilwaco High School Drama Club have the opposite challenge.

They are staging “The Play That Goes Wrong” at the IHS Black Box Theater (choir room) this month.

‘The Play That Goes Wrong’

‘The Play That Goes Wrong’

Ilwaco High School Drama Club

IHS Black Box Theater (choir room)

404 School Road, Ilwaco

7 p.m. Dec. 8-9, 15-16; 3 p.m. Dec. 9-10, 16-17.

Admission $10

The play features a theater troupe staging a murder mystery. And as well as intrigue with the actors’ relationships and rivalries, their lines, entrances, scenery and costumes just don’t function according to plan.

“You have to act like it is a disaster and in fact it is totally scripted,” said Keira Watters, a sophomore whose character is the lighting technician. “There will be a lot of stuff going wrong. That’s one of the fun things about this play.”

The club plans eight performances including four matinees. Shows are 7 p.m. Dec. 8-9, 15-16; 3 p.m. Dec. 9-10, 16-17. Admission is $10, at the door.

“It is a tech-heavy play, but it is coming together really well,” said Lake amid rehearsals which featured a tall clock large enough to hide a person, an unusual telephone call, a dress worn by four people, and the inevitable body on the couch.

Comedy

The 2012 play initially earned accolades in England then a Tony Award for set design on Broadway in 2017. It has become so popular that it has been widely translated, even into Icelandic and Croatian, for productions worldwide. A family friendly version of a script is licensed for high school productions.

It highlights the accident-prone cast of the Cornley Drama Society as they stage “The Murder at Haversham Manor.” One of its British authors, Jonathan Sayer, compared early audience reactions to watching a wobbly tightrope walker. “The more the show goes wrong, the more relieved we feel when the actors figure out how to try and make it right,” he said.

The comedy comes from the characters appearing to flub their lines, making wrong entrances, or being seen when they shouldn’t be; some gags involve props and scenery.

Doubling up

In a rare move because so many student actors wanted to take part, Lake has double-cast the roles. Autumn Shaw doubles with Watters. Aric Weston and Ophelia Wise appear as the director of the play-within-a-play. In other roles, Kara Meinhardt doubles with Aliyanna Hudson; Hayden Gentry with Jace Linthakhan; Evan Metzger with Ethan Shaw; Korbyn Tucker with Paul Kuhn; Lyla Inskeep with Giselle Gardner; and Jay Schenk with Jessica Garcia.

Meinhardt, a junior, is enjoying the scope of her character. “She is a dramatic person, and very full of herself, and sometimes very suspicious,” she said. “There is a lot of physical humor. I get pulled through a window!”