DEATH, destruction and Duran, Duran. The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society are putting on a 1920s murder mystery, but everything that can go wrong does. That includes dead bodies mysteriously coming back to life, the set collapsing in spectacular fashion and a technical man with a penchant for 80s new wave.

Disasters befall the members of the am dram group even before curtain up as they attempt to stage a ropey old whodunnit in this play within a play. President of the drama society Chris Bean, played by Patrick Warner, who puts in a stand out turn as Inspector Carter once the action gets under way at Haversham Manor, explains that the group have had their trials and tribulations. The audience titter knowingly as he reveals how they have struggled with dwindling numbers to put on Chekhov’s Two Sisters and The Lion and The Wardrobe, plus Christmas special Snow White and the tall, broad fellow.

Everyone sitting around me appeared to find the play hysterical. There were tears, there were standing ovations. But while I could see the funny side and marvelled at the Tony and Olivier Award-winning set disintegrating before my eyes, it didn’t quite do it for me. I did laugh, but it’s hard to find hilarity in a series of bloopers that don’t happen by chance, but by design. This is Fawlty Towers meets You’ve Been Framed and fans of slapstick comedy will love every moment.

There’s a real appetite for plays about plays staged by hopeless theatrical groups and most of the audience seemed to have appeared in one at some stage. For them, it brought the house down.

It runs until Saturday. Tickets: 023 8071 1811 or mayflower.org.uk