Ladykillers: Warning — You could die laughing

The Ladykillers
by Graham Linehan
Directed by Colin McColl & Cameron Rhodes
Auckland Theatre Company
Maidment Theatre until March 7

You’ve seen Father Ted on TV, a bunch of odd characters who play at being priests but are closer to being anarchists and they are afflicted by a slightly demented older woman. It was written by Graham Lineham who has tried out the same formula in his play The Ladykillers, an adaptation of the old Ealing comedy. A bunch of odd fellows who pretend to be musicians but are actually criminals and would-be lady killers. They also have to contend with a slightly demented older woman.

The play is set in 1950’s London at the time of the Suez Crisis where Mrs Wilbeforce has just decided to let a room in her house close to Kings Cross Station. “Professor” Marcus immediately takes it for himself as well as for his small band of colleagues who he says are a string quartet practicing for a concert.

They are mainly practicing for their heist which the Professor is working out in fine detail and as a cover they play a recording of classical music behind the closed door to fool Mrs Wilberforce. She is delighted with the group, even managing to get them to agree to do a small performance for her small circle of friends.

As part of the planning they decide to involve Mrs Wilberforce as an unwitting courier to transport the stolen money. Unfortunately this leads to her discovering the group’s criminal activity. This leads to the decision by the group that she must be disposed of. The group of crooks is a little mismatched and ultimately they bear out the old saying of there being no honour among thieves. Although in terms of doing the ultimate dastardly deed of dispatching Mrs Wilberforce none of them is all that evil.

As the intelligent, suave Professor Marcus Carl Bland is ideal, giving the role an imperious quality which impresses Mrs Wilberforce and also the audience. As the jittery Major Courtney Peter Hayden gives the character a delightful mix of old school toff and perplexed old codger who is also a closet cross dresser. Toby Leach provides the most unpleasant of the five crooks as the knife-wielding Romanian, Louis Harvey whose command of the English language leaves much to be desired and he frequently provides us with brilliant malapropisms.

There is the Teddy Boy, Harry Robison played by Byron Coll who gives the pill taking OCD young man a nervous energy and then is the burly One–Round who has been given the name of Mr Lawton but he keeps forgetting who that is. Andrew Grainger makes him a lovable oaf with a heart of gold. There are some great set pieces which help lift the play from pure farce. One sequence sees all five crooks piled into a cupboard where they are discovered by Mr Plod (Constable MacDonald).The ensuing Pythonesque interchange is superb piece of staging and repartee.

When the group is finally forced into having a concert for Mrs Wilberforce and her friends we are entertained by the crooks /musicians playing a piece worthy of the avant garde Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. The cacophony is received with horror as well as admiration by some, with the Professor observing that “Being fooled by art is one of the pleasures of the middle class.”

Rachael Walker’s set provides a slightly surreal environment for the play with much of the house set at jaunty angles, shaken about by the passing trains and an ideal backdrop to the chaotic life of Mrs Wilberforce and the aspiring criminals As Mrs Wilberforce Annie Whittle gives a spirited performance providing a foil to the other characters, acting as a fall guy for many of the jokes.

Paul Minifie as Constable MacDonald is a worthy Mr Plod providing just the right tone and mannerisms. One character who intrudes all the time and is the butt of many jokes is poor General Gordon (voiced by Hera Dunleavey), Mrs Wilberforce’s ailing parrot that looks like “a starving baby in a sock” and spends all his time covered up.

The script is a clever mixture of one-liners and elaborate jokes with dialogue morphing from the comic to the philosophical and back again. Directors Colin McColl and Cameron Rhodes skilfully manipulatee the cast through the set with some almost dance-like sequences, especially when chaos reigns and allow each of the characters to create individual portraits that add to the psychological aspects of the play.