Trabia Garden

I'm constantly delighted by how bonkers the dynamic between Chris and Robert is. Robert had a relationship with Chris's mother; Chris had a relationship with Robert's sister; are you two sure you're not just trying to sleep with each other by proxy?

Anyway, here's a fic about that.


Title: By Proxy
Fandom: The Goes Wrong Show (technically the televised version of A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong)
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Robert/Chris, past Chris/Robert's sister, past Robert/Celia
Wordcount: 2,100
Summary: “I wanted to speak to you about your dalliance with my sister.”

( By Proxy )

This post will consist of various silly Goes Wrong Show-related things I've posted to Tumblr recently!

I posted a poll to Tumblr, asking people for their favourite member of the Cornley Drama Society. The poll closed at 149 votes with Trevor firmly in first place (27.5%), followed by Chris (21.5%), Max (13.4%), Vanessa (10.7%), Annie and Dennis (8.7%), Jonathan (3.4%), Robert and Sandra (2.7%), and Lucy (0.7%).

(I don't think Lucy is an official member of the drama society, but I created this poll to see how things had changed in the three years since personinthepalace asked the same question, so I thought I'd better make sure I had exactly the same options.)

I'm surprised and a little wounded by my beloved Robert's unpopularity! I'm just going to have to love him hard enough for everyone. (This will not satisfy him.)

Anyway, I wrote a little snippet of the characters reacting to the results:


( The Cornley Drama Society react to my character popularity poll. )


Another poll I've contemplated recently was this one from questions-about-blorbos: Would you let your blorbo tie you up and do whatever they wanted with you?

My immediate reaction to this was 'oh, GOD.' Awful!! I think the only one of my blorbos who I actually find sexually attractive is Robert Grove of The Goes Wrong Show, but any sexual encounter with him is guaranteed to be regrettable, and involving bondage would be catastrophic. He ties me up and then gets distracted by an argument with Chris and then rehearses without rest for several days straight, and I am left tied to his bed for seventy-two hours.

Whilst I currently answer blorbo-related polls with Robert in mind, on account of being actively insane about him, the character I usually call on for these polls is Light Yagami of Death Note. Also a terrible idea to let him tie you up! I'm not sexually interested in him, he's not going to be sexually interested in me, and, perhaps most crucially: if he does want to tie me up, it's going to be because he wants to either kill me or frame me for murder. All things considered, I'd rather he didn't.


Finally: for Valentine's Day, I posted a Valentine's message from Robert Grove.


Please accept this as an extremely belated token of my affection for all of you.

It can be a real challenge to characterise the fictional members of the Cornley Drama Society, given that they spend so much of Goes Wrong canon playing other characters. Therefore, I thought I'd see if I could put together a character profile of Robert Grove.

'Are you going to write characterisation guides for the entire drama society?' No. I'll be honest: I just wanted an excuse to talk at length about Robert Grove, because he's perfect.


( Robert Grove: a character summary. )


Robert's best quality as a friend: he will give generously of his time and effort to fix your problem, or at least to fix what he has decided is your problem. This... may not actually be helpful, but it will at least be well-intentioned.

Robert's worst quality as a friend: he will sleep with your mother, insult your acting and throw you under the bus to play the Dane, and he won't even understand why you're annoyed with him afterwards.


In short, Robert is an egotistic and outspoken man with a passion for theatre, an intense sincerity, a vast capacity for self-absorption, a need to be important, a desire for company and an absolute lack of self-awareness. He's relentlessly loud and dramatic. He will refuse to apologise if he doesn't think he's in the wrong, and he will never think he's in the wrong. He's a nightmare. I love him.

In the stage version of Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, Chris canonically refuses to keep the Cornley Playhouse heated, and everyone complains about how cold it is. It seemed like a great excuse to write self-indulgent fanfiction!

As this is based on the 2025 stage version of Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, be aware that some details may not match up with the original 2017 television version.

The title's not great, but the only other thing I could think of was Baby, It's Cold Inside, which would be considerably worse.


Title: Backup Heating
Fandom: The Goes Wrong Show (well, technically Christmas Carol Goes Wrong)
Rating: G
Pairing: slight everyone/everyone
Wordcount: 1,600
Summary: During rehearsals for A Christmas Carol, Chris won't allow anyone to use the heating. Clearly, the Cornley Drama Society is just going to have to huddle for warmth.

( Backup Heating )

After seeing Christmas Carol Goes Wrong at the Apollo Theatre on 14 January, I wrote a post outlining some differences between the official published script and the actual performance I saw. I crossposted it to Tumblr, and a couple of people thanked me for sharing details you wouldn't get from reading the script, so I thought I should see if I could dig up anything else!

Now that I've read through the script in full, here are some more differences I've picked up on between the script and the staged version. Some of these are outright changes from the script; some of them are just performance details (e.g. interesting moments of body language) that aren't included in the stage directions. As this was originally written for a Tumblr audience, there's a bit of overlap with things I've already mentioned on Dreamwidth (specifically in the post I made straight after seeing the play).


( More differences between the script and the actual staged version of Christmas Carol Goes Wrong. )


Getting into a theatre fandom is so strange! It feels like there's simultaneously not enough canon and an infinite quantity of canon, because it's impossible to see every performance. I'm glad The Goes Wrong Show means that at least some parts of Goes Wrong canon exist in a concrete, tangible, rewatchable way.

Here's the seventh roundup of my fills for this year's Three-Sentence Ficathon! Another instalment that's entirely about The Goes Wrong Show; I have far too much fun writing fanfiction about these idiots.


( Assorted ficlets for the Goes Wrong Show, mainly Chris and Robert, 840 words total. )


I've apparently written... fifty fills for this year's ficathon? Fifty? Is that right? That doesn't feel like it can be right. I hadn't realised it was so dangerous to go into Three-Sentence Ficathon season with a specific fandom firmly occupying my mind.

The concept and characters of The Goes Wrong Show, the BBC theatrical comedy series best known for making me completely lose my mind, originated with The Play That Goes Wrong, an actual stage show that's been running in the West End for over a decade. And, well, I do live in London; if I'm going to go insane over a theatre fandom, I might as well take advantage of that!

Which is to say that Tem, Rei and I went to see The Play That Goes Wrong at the Duchess Theatre last night. It was a lot of fun!

During our meal before the play, my housemates teased me a fair bit for my nerves about seeing my blorbo Robert Grove in person. I tried to express that it was less nerve-racking than seeing him on stage in Christmas Carol Goes Wrong a few weeks ago, when he was actually played by the role's originator, Henry Lewis, the handsomest man in the world.

Riona: It'll be fine. I've already seen him in hard mode. (realising what I've just said) ...so to speak.

I ended up blushing very badly over the course of this conversation.

Tem: You're glowing, Riona. Almost like you've had a rendezvous with the handsomest man in the world and you have some news to share.

The actor playing Robert was good in the role - he was very recognisably the same character, and he had a good strong voice, which I think is essential; you're just not Robert Grove if you're not acting as loudly as possible - but I was tragically unhot for him. It's not your fault, sir; you've got stiff competition. So to speak.


( Notes on seeing The Play That Goes Wrong on stage. )


It's interesting to watch The Play That Goes Wrong, which was the first major Goes Wrong production, and which the creators presumably assumed at the time would be the only major Goes Wrong production. It's very focused on the technical side of things going wrong, with the characters taking more of a back seat (although the characters are still very much there even at this early stage; everyone was easily recognisable despite being played by different actors), and it tries to cram in every disaster it possibly can. By contrast, Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, their most recent stage production (not to be confused with the television special of the same name, which had a completely different script), was very character-focused and a lot more restrained when it came to things actually going wrong.

I really enjoy the 'things technically going wrong' aspect; it's a lot of fun, and always beautifully timed! But I'm also glad that, over time, the Goes Wrong universe has started to focus a little more on the characters themselves; I think it helps to keep the concept fresh.

By this point, I've stopped even pretending to think about other fandoms. Have ten more tiny Goes Wrong Show ficlets for the threesentenceficathon. Most of these are actually three sentences, at least!


( Assorted ficlets for the Goes Wrong Show, mainly Chris and Robert, 1,100 words total. )


Poking through bits of the script for the stage version of Peter Pan Goes Wrong, I was intrigued to discover one particular tiny segment. Robert, playing Nana the dog, is trapped in the dog door, meaning he's nowhere near the human characters when they start complaining that he's getting fur on them. Naturally, they come up with the sanest possible solution:

Chris: Oh, you useless animal! You've got dog hairs all over my trousers!
(He goes over to Robert and rubs his trousers over him.)
Sandra: Silly hound! You've got hair all over everyone.
(They all rub themselves on Robert.)

Tragically, this did not make it into the television cut! HOWEVER, I'm delighted to find there is a three-second 'Robert on his hands and knees while Sandra rubs herself against his beard' clip from rehearsals floating around, which you can find here on Tumblr if you're as normal about Robert Grove as I am.

This is another Goes Wrong Show fic that started life as a fill for the Three-Sentence Ficathon! My worst failure to keep to three sentences yet; this version is slightly expanded, but the original fill was still over a thousand words.

The original prompt was 'outsider POV'. I originally started thinking about using an original character, and then it hit me that, as Vanessa joined later than the rest of the company, she could be the outsider.


Title: The Outsider
Fandom: The Goes Wrong Show
Rating: G
Wordcount: 1,600
Summary: How did Vanessa end up joining the Cornley Drama Society?


( The Outsider )

Of course I was going to write this. Inevitably I was going to write this. It didn't help that Robert accused Sandra of 'flirting with everyone' in Peter Pan Goes Wrong; my reaction was very much to perk up and go 'everyone, you say?'


Title: Educational Experiences
Fandom: The Goes Wrong Show
Rating: 15
Pairing: everyone/everyone, particularly Robert/Sandra and Sandra/everyone
Wordcount: 1,800
Summary: Robert folds his arms. “If you’re not going to take the orgy seriously, we won’t have it.”


( Educational Experiences )