The Mischief Company's first musical, Thespians, visited Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud Theatre last week and is scheduled to return on Tuesday, June 30, for a second visit. The Arnaud's confidence in ticket sales reflects the amazing success the Mischief Company has achieved with their earlier productions, not only in Guildford but nationally and beyond.
Thespians has been created by the team behind their first sell-out show, The Play That Goes Wrong, a production rapidly elevated into the realm of legend and a homage to the gloriously chaotic world of amateur dramatics. Mischief created a world where ambition exceeds ability and catastrophe is rarely far from the wings.
Several equally successful productions followed, including Magic Goes Wrong, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, and The Comedy About A Bank Robbery, which all go wrong. Mischief has established a loyal, substantial, and enthusiastic following.
A Different Direction
Thespians, their first musical, arrived in Guildford carrying the considerable expectations attached to success, yet this production takes a markedly different route from the orchestrated calamities of earlier shows. Set in ancient Greece and built around the accidental birth of acting, it pursues the story of Thespis, a humble teller of stories who discovers that pretending to be someone else may carry unexpected power.
This time around, Thespians as a musical offers a lighter touch than Mischief audiences might otherwise anticipate. The comedy and brief hints of slapstick remain, but there is tenderness too and an evident affection for theatre itself.
There is still broad humour, with lines like 'It's a load of Acropolis!' and 'You are what you are - a liability!', but the musical score occasionally carries faint echoes of Stephen Sondheim with lyrics that underpin romance, vulnerability, and that quiet human need to belong.
Rather than engineering catastrophe, Thespians offers Mischief audiences something gentler: a witty, warm-hearted, and occasionally touching celebration of theatre itself. Beneath the silliness, songs like 'World Out There' offer surprising emotional depth to a production that lingers pleasantly in the memory.
Operation Mincemeat at Woking Theatre
Meanwhile, Operation Mincemeat, a West End success currently playing at the recently renamed Woking Theatre, delivers non-stop laughs based on one of World War Two's most audacious real-life deceptions. The extraordinary true story of a British intelligence scheme designed to fool Hitler into believing the Allies intended to invade Greece rather than Sicily.
The plan depended upon a dead body drifting ashore, a fabricated identity, and a carefully planted trail of misinformation. It remains a concept so unlikely it feels tailor-made for a comedy, yet it is entirely true.
For all its comic confidence, Operation Mincemeat also knows when to lower the temperature. Dear Bill, arguably the evening's standout number, introduces a note of genuine emotional weight amid the laughter. The audience responded with loud cheers and applause, an astonishing reaction and moment.
Yet the show never loses sight of a larger truth: that humour matters particularly in difficult times. In a climate where satire can sometimes feel substantially more inhibited or timid than once it was, the show quietly reminds us that laughter is not frivolous; it is often one of society's healthiest instincts.
The theatre seemed very close to its 1,300 capacity, and as the production concludes in Woking tomorrow (Saturday), it will gather its poise to reopen in Newcastle on Monday and then travel to Plymouth the following Monday. Judging by the pace, polish, and sheer stamina the company possesses, it seems clear it is getting accustomed to theatrical active service.
