Against all odds, the bumbling cast in this play-within-a-play puts a smile on your face and makes you root for them.

The beauty of theatre often lies in the suspension of disbelief, where the team will do anything and everything to ensure that you are fully immersed in the world of the play, enraptured and fully taking in every word each character utters. So it seems to go completely against logic itself if a production mischievously inverts this, and does everything in its power to break the illusion you see before you.

Adapted for the Esplanade’s 2023 Kalaa Utsavam – Indian Festival of Arts, Agam Theatre Lab’s version of hit British comedy The Play That Goes Wrong remains true to its origins, while adding in several Bollywood conventions for a distinctly Indian flavour. Co-directed by Subramanian Ganesh and Karthikeyan Somasundram (who also adapted the script), Twin Murder In The Green Mansion is a play-within-a-play that sees the Chutney Drama Society given the opportunity to stage the titular play. But with a muddling troupe of amateur players, chaos is always around the corner, and everything that could possibly go wrong, does.

Like its inspiration, Twin Murder In The Green Mansion is an incredibly difficult play to put on, primarily due to how it requires perfect comedic timing from both its cast and its set – which quite literally falls apart over the course of the performance. Set designer Lim Keng San of ON STAGING has crafted the interior of a ‘mansion’ that appears cheap, to replicate the budget of the drama society, yet professionally finished. Plenty of detail has gone into its design, where it feels like an old colonial house, from its shuttered windows to the tile patterns on the wall, and fully utilises the space within the Esplanade Studio Theatre.

Of course this being the farce that it is, the set already starts coming apart right from the beginning, with shelves and paintings falling off the walls, or worse – entire platforms collapsing while actors are still on them, and even some secret entrances and impressive pyrotechnics thrown in. All things considered, it is a valiant attempt to mimic the same amount of surprises that are seen throughout the play, save for a number of times things almost feel like they’re falling in slow motion, dissipating the tension.

What makes Twin Murder In The Green Mansion so endearing is its cast, who are almost always at 100% of their energy and more in every scene. Physically demanding, the cast are constantly, consciously overacting as they push the script to its comedic limits, and it feels like a well-oiled car crash you can’t look away from. From the beginning, we’re already introduced to the first-time director (Karthikeyan Somasundram), who constantly apologises for the amateur quality show we’re about to watch, and he’s not wrong – this motley crew is a handful to witness, each one with their own quirks and backstory.

There’s a cross-dressing playwright (Udaya Soundari) and a backstage crew member with dreams of becoming a star (Prasakthi Allagoo), a heck-care sound engineer (Nallu Dhinakharan) to an influencer who constantly garbles his lines into malapropisms (PK), an actor playing a dead body who misses his cues or gets stepped on (Shaikh Yasin) and a flirtatious theatre critic (Indu Elangovan) who continually fails to seduce a hapless and very innocent co-star (Mano).

It’s particularly impressive how co-directors Subramanian Ganesh and Karthikeyan Somasundram keep all this chaos under control, where despite the multiple layers of reality present, from the actual performance to the members of the Chutney Drama Society to the characters they play, everything makes sense and we’re able to follow every thread and storyline presented to us. There are the burdens and emotions that each player carries with them from real life to their character, and physical buffoonery and mishaps that are well-rehearsed and feel like genuine reactions and mistakes.

While you’ll find yourself laughing and even at times tense from wondering how the actual story will progress, Twin Murder in the Green Mansion succeeds most at keeping its forward momentum. There is never a dull moment, and the ensemble are constantly bringing up each other’s energy, where one chaotic scene follows another. You end up hoping for them to overcome every issue that happens, from actors getting knocked out to lifts breaking down, and it absolutely puts the sense of joy in you as we see them push through it all.

While it may not be as polished as its West End counterpart, Twin Murder In The Green Mansion is a remarkable local adaptation that still achieves what it sets out to do – where amidst all the blunders and the mayhem, you still wind up rooting for this motley crew of actors who do their darndest to get through the play. As we watch the walls collapse around them, there is an undeniable feeling of triumph and hope that fills us watching them take their final bows, and we are reminded of the indomitable will of the human spirit, the combined effort of both cast and crew who made this insanely difficult play a reality, and no matter how many concussions sustained or lines flubbed, the show must go on.

Photo Credit: Agam Theatre Lab

Twin Murder In The Green Mansion played at the Esplanade Theatre Studio from 24th to 26th November 2023.

Kalaa Utsavam – Indian Festival of Arts 2023 ran from 17th to 26th November 2023. Full programme available here

Production Credits:

Producer: Subramanian Ganesh (Agam) Directors: Subramanian Ganesh, Karthikeyan Somasundram Dramaturg: Sindhura Kalidas   Script Adaptation: Karthikeyan Somasundram Cast: Karthikeyan Somasundram, Udaya Soundari, Prasakthi Allagoo ,Nallu Dhinakharan, Shaikh Yasin, Pk, Mano, Indu Company Manager: Joanne Ng Assistant Producer: Wan Sarah Production Manager: Charlinda Pereira Stage Manager: Shivani D/O Thillai Nadarajan Assistant Stage Managers: Audrey Low & Reyn Tan Production Assistant: Emily Francesca Soegijanto Sound Design: Nallu Dhinakharan Publicity Design: JS Sasikumar Techincal Manager: Ian Tan Set Design: Lim Keng San (ON STAGING)) Sets Construction: ON STAGING Pte Ltd Props Manager: Audrey Low Makeup & Costume Design: Norehan Fong Surtitles: Durga Devi Photography: Brandon Video Editor: Praveen Kumar