After speed-walking home from my job just to discover I was locked out of my house and my phone was dead, I finally sat down in the Little Theater at Oak Park and River Forest High School, hungry, late and annoyed.

I had no idea what to expect for my evening, but it frankly was not how I wanted to spend my Friday night. I was there for the opening performance of “The Play ThatGoes Wrong” on Sept. 29–which lived up to its name in a hilarious and original way.

The play was a murder mystery, centered around an investigator, sisters Florence and Mary, Florence’s fiance Charles, Charles’s brother Cecil and the maid.

I had decided to go into the show with little information about it, to remain un-biased and to have my impression purely based on the performance. I quickly caught on to the joke when the investigator came on stage and hung his coat and hat on a hook that did not exist. Later, the investigator asked for his notebook, and another character scoured a table and returned with a plant, and said “here’s your notebook, sir!” with a nervous laugh. This, of course, got a laugh from the audience. Again when the investigator’s pen was nowhere to be found, he was given a set of keys.

As the plot thickened, affairs were revealed, a character disappeared who was then replaced by a member of the stage crew, and another murder occurred, which of course was shown by an actor throwing a red scarf up when he died, representing blood.

Everything that could possibly go wrong in a play, did. In the most intense scenes, a character would pause and look backstage and say, “line?” Music started at the wrong time (not to mention completely unsuitable music), paintings fell off the walls and cues were missed.

My favorite running joke was when someone came on stage and said dramatically, “Not so fast, inspector!” not once, but twice, before when he was supposed to. Delivered out of context, the line made very little sense. The glares he got from the cast when he joined the wrong scene made me laugh out loud, and I couldn’t tell you the last time the theater made me do that.

Beyond how unbelievably funny I found this play, I also was quite impressed with the attention to detail throughout the set. In the corner there was someone controlling the sound and lights, but he was completely visible to the audience. His desk had a Duran Duran poster, empty McDonald’s boxes, Monster cans and lots of other junk.

The idea in theater that if you’re onstage, someone is always looking at you, and you should stay in character was taken to a whole new level in “The Play That Goes Wrong.” There was complete dedication to the story from the actors, creating an immersive experience.

The investigator, played by Alex Robinson Bellin, a junior, gave a particularly outstanding performance. Robinson Bellin (who is also on the staff of Trapeze, as the News and Opinion editor), was able to maintain a ridiculous accent for the entirety of the show, while still fully committing to every joke and every line.

By the end, the stage was in complete chaos. There was fighting and more murders, but also the set was falling apart, as each wall fell one by one, revealing the entire backstage.

Although the joke had its moments of getting a bit repetitive, The Play That Goes Wrong was an extremely well executed play, with truly hilarious characters and jokes, and an immeasurable amount of collective talent.

I left very happy that I had made it and spent my evening watching something so enjoyable.