The Ladykillers

Based on the Ealing comedy of 1955, this is an updated play version by Graham Linehan, written in 2011. It tells of elderly widow Mrs Wilberforce living in a house right next to Kings Cross Station. She unwittingly lets out a room to a gang of robbers posing as musicians. They are planning a heist and when Mrs. Wilberforce  finds out what is going on the gang plan to ‘despatch’ her but whilst fighting amongst themselves over who will do the deed, comic but disastrous results o ccurfor the gang themselves.

The set was excellent, exactly what you would expect from a 1950’s quirky house. The raised back of the stage to show the bedroom/bathroom, even had a chimney and roofline which showed to good effect the smoke coming from the station. The rest of the set was well dressed in old fashioned furniture and a picture that wouldn’t hang straight. Every time a train went past the whole set shook and the lights flickered, in fact lighting/sound overall was flawless. Costumes looked in period and Professor Marcus’ very long scarf played a most important and comedic part.

Jean Erxleben was totally believable as Mrs. Wilberforce as a slightly stooped eccentric old lady whose complaints to the police were unfounded, but she found a friendly ear in Constable Macdonald, sympathetically played by Matthew Springett. Mrs. Wilberforce is totally taken in by Professor Marcus, gently and convincingly played by Will Dowdy. There were some nice touches with the afore mentioned scarf and the attempts to straighten the picture. We are then gradually introduced to the rest of the gang. James Klech gave a good balance to the cross-dressing Major Courtney, his nervous twitchiness was well maintained throughout. Harry Robinson played by Nick Stafford was confident as the ‘wide boy’. One-Round (Mr. Lawson) played so believably by Chris Howland and gave some of the best one-liners. He was not the brightest of the gang and met his end by being stabbed in the head by Nick Smith playing the murderous gangster Louis Harvey,

Finally, we end up with Mrs Wilberforce’s Loose Society of Elderly Ladies, a gaggle of batty old ladies led by Carol Smith as Mrs Jane Tromleyton who was wowed by the cacophony of sound being emitted by the so called ‘musicians.’ Each of the gangsters meet their demise and Mrs. Wilberforce ends up with the proceeds of their heist and when she tries to report it to the police, they think it is just another figment of her imagination and is told to forget all about it.

This was a very good cast who worked well together. Characterisation was spot on and the direction by Helen Thorpe was excellent. A thoroughly entertaining production

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.