The Ladykillers
Nineteen12 Productions
17th September 2014
The Dixon Studio
Nineteen12 Productions
17th September 2014
The Dixon Studio
The Ladykillers is based on the well-known 1955 Ealing comedy film of the same title, starring Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom and Alec Guinness and such is the film's following that some people will probably wonder how on earth the film could possible cross over to the stage. However, this is a well written theatrical piece penned by the writer of Father Ted and The IT Crowd, Graham Linehan, and not only will it impress the die hard film fans, it should also gain popularity from a more modern day audience who will find a new freshness to it.
A group of criminals led by the brilliant Professor Marcus, has a plan to rob a train at Kings Cross station and decides to take up residence in a nearby house while he rehearses his team and hones his plans. The house belongs to an endearing old lady, a widow, called Mrs Wilberforce, who lives alone apart from her deformed parrot which has a degenerative disease. As cover for their criminal activities, the gang pretend to be a string quintet who wish to use Mrs Wilberforce's spare room to rehearse their musical pieces. As you might imagine, Professor Marcus's criminal conspiracy does not go quite according to plan.
The first act of this play rolls out more than it’s fair share of laughs, with each of the characters being introduced to Mrs Wilberforce.
Ben Smerdon, as Professor Marcus, gave a very strong and confident performance and led the company well. Hannah Drake’s interpretation of Mrs Wilberforce was perfect and her vocal clarity and posture made her a very believable character. The spiv, Harry Robinson (Elliot Bigden) who was obsessed with cleaning made good use of his comedic lines but in places, I felt, could have perhaps toned his performance down a little bit. One Round Lawson, the thick ex boxer, absolutely looked the part and gave Richard Wells, in this his first performance with Nineteen12, a great opportunity to show us what a good comedy actor he is. Likewise, Leah-May Keeble’s sense-of-humourless, Romanian thug was played just right, allowing her to deliver all her dead pan lines with ease.
The person who stole the show for me, however, was Sam Thomas as the Major. His characterisation was spot on and was maintained throughout. This was an outstanding performance and even more so when you consider that Sam is still only 16 years old. His comic delivery and physicality gave me, and the rest of the audience, the best laughs of the night.
The second act of the play, for me, was a tad slower. This, I think, was mainly due to the writing. This was probably made more noticeable as the first act had given us so many laughs and the audience anticipation was for more. However, it was great fun seeing how each dodgy criminal finally met their demise. The part where they all tell Mrs Wilberforce their made up sob stories was very funny.
A huge credit must go to the technical team of this play, with them providing the effects of a steam train, complete with smoke and lights and sound every time the Kings Cross train went through. I particularly liked the effect of the smoke coming out of the chimney. The set design was very well thought out. Who could believe that a two storey house with a landing would fit inside the Dixon Studio?
A special mention too must go to the director, Daniel Steward, who on his directorial debut must certainly be feeling very proud of his cast as well as the Production Team, who have brought this play to life. This director is clearly very talented. He certainly knows how to get the best from his actors and I hope he will continue to do more.
I went to see the professional production of this play on it’s opening week and I have to admit that I was very disappointed with it; especially as it had such a stellar cast with the likes of John Gordon Sinclair and Ralf Little. Somehow they just didn’t seem to be able to capture the humour of the production and hammed it up for all they were worth. The Nineteen12 cast played it straighter and it worked. I can honestly say that I laughed ten times harder watching tonight’s performance and I’m not usually a ‘laugh out loud’ person at the theatre!
This young company have now set the bar for future productions with this performance and I very much look forward to seeing what they come up with next.
If you want a fun and entertaining night out get along to The Dixon Studio. I hear that tickets are selling fast and you really won’t want to miss out.
A group of criminals led by the brilliant Professor Marcus, has a plan to rob a train at Kings Cross station and decides to take up residence in a nearby house while he rehearses his team and hones his plans. The house belongs to an endearing old lady, a widow, called Mrs Wilberforce, who lives alone apart from her deformed parrot which has a degenerative disease. As cover for their criminal activities, the gang pretend to be a string quintet who wish to use Mrs Wilberforce's spare room to rehearse their musical pieces. As you might imagine, Professor Marcus's criminal conspiracy does not go quite according to plan.
The first act of this play rolls out more than it’s fair share of laughs, with each of the characters being introduced to Mrs Wilberforce.
Ben Smerdon, as Professor Marcus, gave a very strong and confident performance and led the company well. Hannah Drake’s interpretation of Mrs Wilberforce was perfect and her vocal clarity and posture made her a very believable character. The spiv, Harry Robinson (Elliot Bigden) who was obsessed with cleaning made good use of his comedic lines but in places, I felt, could have perhaps toned his performance down a little bit. One Round Lawson, the thick ex boxer, absolutely looked the part and gave Richard Wells, in this his first performance with Nineteen12, a great opportunity to show us what a good comedy actor he is. Likewise, Leah-May Keeble’s sense-of-humourless, Romanian thug was played just right, allowing her to deliver all her dead pan lines with ease.
The person who stole the show for me, however, was Sam Thomas as the Major. His characterisation was spot on and was maintained throughout. This was an outstanding performance and even more so when you consider that Sam is still only 16 years old. His comic delivery and physicality gave me, and the rest of the audience, the best laughs of the night.
The second act of the play, for me, was a tad slower. This, I think, was mainly due to the writing. This was probably made more noticeable as the first act had given us so many laughs and the audience anticipation was for more. However, it was great fun seeing how each dodgy criminal finally met their demise. The part where they all tell Mrs Wilberforce their made up sob stories was very funny.
A huge credit must go to the technical team of this play, with them providing the effects of a steam train, complete with smoke and lights and sound every time the Kings Cross train went through. I particularly liked the effect of the smoke coming out of the chimney. The set design was very well thought out. Who could believe that a two storey house with a landing would fit inside the Dixon Studio?
A special mention too must go to the director, Daniel Steward, who on his directorial debut must certainly be feeling very proud of his cast as well as the Production Team, who have brought this play to life. This director is clearly very talented. He certainly knows how to get the best from his actors and I hope he will continue to do more.
I went to see the professional production of this play on it’s opening week and I have to admit that I was very disappointed with it; especially as it had such a stellar cast with the likes of John Gordon Sinclair and Ralf Little. Somehow they just didn’t seem to be able to capture the humour of the production and hammed it up for all they were worth. The Nineteen12 cast played it straighter and it worked. I can honestly say that I laughed ten times harder watching tonight’s performance and I’m not usually a ‘laugh out loud’ person at the theatre!
This young company have now set the bar for future productions with this performance and I very much look forward to seeing what they come up with next.
If you want a fun and entertaining night out get along to The Dixon Studio. I hear that tickets are selling fast and you really won’t want to miss out.
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What the audience thought
Peter Nawrat, Southend “The future of drama in Southend is safe with these youngsters. Absolutely wonderful. The talent on that stage tonight was amazing.” Lucy Hickey and Alice Harman (both 16yrs old) “The scene transitions were really good” “We loved Sam as the Major holding the dress” “They nailed the comical aspect perfectly” Jim and Shirley Wolfe “Seeing such a young group of actors and actresses at that level was brilliant” “Mrs Wilberforce’s character was great, she stayed there all the time; in fact they all kept their characters throughout” Julie-Dawn Newman “A thoroughly enjoyable play. They did a really good job and are clearly up and coming promising talent” |
