It’s not often that a theatre set makes an audience actually gasp.
But at the opening night of The Ladykillers at Hereford’s Courtyard theatre last night, there was a distinct intake of breath when the building exterior of the opening scene rotated round to reveal a fastidiously appointed two-storey period house within.
The astonishment could have been mingled with mild alarm, given that this stage version of the classic 1955 Ealing comedy credits a “fight coordinator”, in Kaitlin Howard - yet there is a fair-sized drop from the “fourth wall” of the upper-floor bedroom, where much nefarious activity is about to take place.
This production by Ludlow-based Here to There Productions, directed by its founder Andrew Whittle, arguably works best in the zanier, more slapstick moments.
It was adapted for the stage by Graham Linehan, co-creator of hit TV sitcoms Father Ted and The IT Crowd, and foregrounds the laughs rather than lingering on the mood of post-war social and moral decline of the original film.
Renting a room from the seemingly oblivious elderly housekeeper Mrs Wilberforce (Dawn Bush), he assembles a motley crew of to pull off a heist from King’s Cross railway station nearby.
None are quite as they seem. “Major Courtney” (Neil Mason) lets his military cover slip with a fondness for the housekeeper’s dresses; Harry (Oliver Byng) has a fastidiousness that belies his cool rocker persona; Louis’ (Alan Magor) exotic gangster hides an aversion to actual dirty work; while Ben Andrew’s punch-drunk ex-boxer One-Round has a surprising tender side.
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Their cover story is that they are a rehearsing string quartet, and this leads to a delightful scene (pictured) in which, due to various misunderstandings, they are obliged to perform at short notice to Mrs Wilberforce’s coterie of ladyfriends.
Needless to say, the gang’s criminal skills are barely above their musicianship, and as their housekeeper unwittingly sows discord among them, the freight trains passing below start to acquire some rather dead passengers…
This is accessible theatre, and should appeal to a wider public than the, dare I say it, core theatre-going types of a certain age most in evidence last night. My 11-year-old daughter enjoyed it and I’m sure other youngsters would too. The fractious gang’s feuding won’t scare them too much!
The Ladykillers runs at The Courtyard until Sunday April 10, with an audio-description performance for the visually impaired on Saturday afternoon.
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