The Play That Goes Wrong is the funniest show to come to Eastbourne in many years with its superb mix of farce, slapstick and fantastic split-second comic timing.

It provides laughs galore as doors won’t open, props can’t be found and the set repeatedly collapses until nothing is left standing.

This play within a play, brilliantly written by cast members Henry Shields, Henry Lewis and Jonathan Sayer, depicts how incompetent Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society put on a 1920's murder mystery.

Greg Tannahill and Dave Hearn are hilarious as brothers Charles and Cecil. Greg is a corpse that won’t stop moving and Dave is a ham who can’t help ingratiating himself with the audience.

Jonathan Sayer also brings out the full humour in his role of muddled butler Perkins who mispronounces his words.

The brothers’ love interest, Florence Colleymore, suffers so much mishandling she has to be played by three actors, with Charlie Russell upstaging Nancy Wallinger and Rob Falconer.

Hearn, Lewis and Shields, who doubles as the Drama Society’s director and Inspector Carter, literally throw themselves into some injury-risking manoeuvres.

Designer Nigel Hook and director Mark Bell ensure that parts of the set continually break at the worst possible moments.