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The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society (CPDS) is the fictional theatre society that puts on the productions in the GWEU. They are an often inept group of people, who are either bad actors, stagehands, or unable to do well due to unfortunate circumstances. There are several members who joined the society purely for extra credit or because no other society would take them.
The play in question, at the centre of its conceit, is titled The Murder At Haversham Manor; purporting to have been written by Susie H.K. Brideswell, in reality, a fictional author, and performed by the equally fictional Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, it’s a 1920s murder mystery comedy that opens with the slaying of Charles Haversham on the night of his engagement to Florence Colleymoore. The CPDS are gamely attempting to do it justice, but suffice to say they put the amateur in ‘amateur theatre company’, and the result is slapstick and farce.
The Olivier Award-winning Mischief Theatre brings Peter Pan Goes Wrong to BBC One. As part of its commitment to community theatre, the BBC has commissioned The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, an amateur dramatics group, to recreate the JM Barrie classic as part of their festive programming. But can they pull it off? Narrated by David Suchet and filmed in front of a live audience, watch as Peter Pan flies through the air, Captain Hook and his pirates set adrift in the lagoon, and Tinkerbell is due to light up the stage in a stunning electrical costume... what can possibly go wrong?! With their trademark comic mayhem, expect hilarious stunts, chaos, technical hitches, flying mishaps and cast disputes on the way to Neverland with hilarious and disastrous results.
The Mischief Theatre Company return as the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society who are this time determined to ignore a BBC blacklisting by hijacking a live production of Charles Dickens' famous festive fable. Yet they struggle with studio direction and special effects, and trying to keep a professional cast at bay.