The Lady Killers

~~Some people of a certain age may remember the old black and white film of this story which I think starred Margaret Rutherford and Alec Guinness, well I can tell you if Margaret Rutherford had been sitting in the Civic Theatre this week she would have known she had met her match with Julie Webb in the role of Mrs. Wilberforce. She was fantastic and would certainly give many younger actors a run for their money.

The action in this piece takes place in Mrs Wilberforce's house where she takes a lodger who turns out to be one of a gang of bank robbers, the set for this was, I would think, a dilemma for any director but the one created for Neil Mather was perfect with varying levels for the different rooms, this plus some good lighting proved to be a hit.

There were some really good characters in this and I have to say not one of them came out of character at any time during the whole play, Frank Bardsley as Professor Marcus, the ringleader of the gang of bank robbers was perfect, this was a very domineering role and Frank was able to give it full justice to get the most out of it. Also producing great characters were Mark Hague as a crossdressing Major Courtney who I have to say kept the audience wondering if he really was a policeman or not!

Others in the cast were Simon Raffo as a punch drunk One Round, Mark Stones as Louis Harvey and also Gregg Muscroft as Constable Macdonald, all demonstrating their excellent acting abilities.

One person in this cast I must mention is Lee Sanderson as the Tourettes/OCD would be gangster Harry Robinson. Lee was exceptional in this role in fact he was so good I did at one point wonder if he really did have tourettes his acting was so good.

A brilliant evening's entertainment, well done to Neil and the full cast. 

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