Fairfax County Public Schools students are talented actors, musicians, and visual artists. Many FCPS high schools participate in the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Critics and Awards Program for High School Theatre, otherwise known as the Cappies.

The Cappies is a program through which high school theater and journalism students are trained as critics, attend shows at other schools, write reviews, and publish those reviews in local newspapers. There are fifteen Cappies chapters across the United States and Canada. 

Editor's Note: This review of Westfield High School's production of The Play That Goes Wrong (High School Edition) is written by Sean Smith of Edison High School. 

"This is the worst night of all of our lives," said no one in the audience. The Play That Goes Wrong, performed by Westfield Theatre, was a stunning success that left the audience gasping for air.

Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, and Jonathan Sayer wrote The Play That Goes Wrong, which opened in 2012. Originating in the UK, the show won the 2015 Oliver Award for Best New Comedy. Since then, the play has become immensely popular among colleges and high schools. The Play That Goes Wrong follows the Cornley Drama Society as they attempt to put on The Murder at Haversham Manor, but nothing seems to go right.

Leading the cast was Natalie Kattas as Christine, Cornley's director who played Inspector Carter. Kattas performed a versatile character: a director who lost control and composure at every misstep, and a suave Inspector who remained calm and collected. The range of talent was apparent throughout the performance. Another consistent performance was from TJ Brescia as Dennis, who portrayed the butler, Perkins. Brescia presented Dennis' nervousness clearly to the audience with constant fidgeting, shifting in his stance, and a wiggling of the mustache whenever he mispronounced a word.

Comedy is not just in the delivery of lines; it is also in how the actor acts physically. Two actors played their characters within a character with incredible physical comedy: Elias Collier as Jonathan/Charles Haversham and Matthew Florian as Joe/Arthur the Gardener. Collier got many early laughs as a dead Charles Haversham that would not stay dead. From moving limbs to avoid getting stepped on or breaking character to get actors to stop sitting on him, Collier broke the rules in a way that left the audience roaring with laughter. Florian also established himself as a physical character. Florian made his appearance with an empty leash and used that leash to keep the scene moving as if there was an invisible dog on the end. This entrance set the tone for a character who strived to salvage a show that was literally falling apart.

No show could come together, or apart, without a phenomenal stage crew. Teresa Seraphin, Jonathan Duncan, Tyler Crevoisier, and Jaylah Bunch all worked diligently to perfect the timing of falling set pieces. They also ensured the safety of the cast and crew with color-coordinated spike tape to communicate falling hazards, safe zones, and blocking. Now, this would all be moot without the set crew; Eloise Latimer, Abigail Matthews, Chloe Lupo, and Zachary Abdelmotalib, designing all the falling set pieces while keeping safety in mind. A horrifying nightmare in theatre is an early or incorrect sound cue, but what if those incorrect cues are intentional? The sound crew: Alexa Goodchild, Justin Short, Caroline Nelson, and Seth Galoci, had the task of changing their perspective of the show to that of Trevor (Annabelle DuBard), the Cornley Society's sound tech, matching the actions made as well as choosing when to turn on a mic not from the script but from a character's perspective
of the show.

The cast and crew of Westfield Theatre's The Play That Goes Wrong reminded us that even when the walls come down and Justin Bieber starts playing in the middle of a scene, the show must go on!