'The Ladykillers' Vaudeville Theatre ****

The current run of 'The Ladykillers' is a well crafted piece of theatre indeed. Based on the 1955 film of the same name which starred the likes of Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers is set in King's Cross where five criminals decide to come together and pose as musicians decide to conjure a heist. To cover their tracks 'Professor' Marcus decides to rent rooms that are available of an old lady called Mrs Wilberforce and falsy claim that he and the other criminals are performing for a concert and need a place to stay and rehearse. However this is a complete lie as this is going to be the location as to where they plan the robbery. The narrative flows particularly well through both the humour and the emotion of this piece of theatre and I found the performances by the entire company were brilliantly conveyed and the delivery of the comedy were of good quality as well as wonderful to watch. The lead female role Mrs Wilberforce played by Angela Thorne performed the role so eloquently and her expressions and movements were exceptional and lovely to witness. Sometimes I felt the performances by the criminals Harry (Ralf Little), One Round (Chris McCalphy), Major Courtney (Simon Day), Louis (Con O'Niell) and of course their leader Professor Marcus (John Gordon Sinclair) were often too comedic for my liking and I found some of the fight sequences to be too repetitive but the majority of their acting were of a good standard. Sean Foley's direction were superbly thought of as he has been able to create an adaptation of an iconic British comic film to the West End stage. His attention the the comic values were second to none even though some of the actions were slightly repetitive for ones liking e.g. the slapping and the rocking of the set to convey the nearby train line. I thought that the set and costume designer Michael Taylor has done a credible job for this such production as he has be able to design a Victorian house onto the vast Vaudeville stage. I think the costumes were beautifully made and conveyed the 1950's quite well. The lighting was especially outstanding and I think James Farncombe deserves 'a pat on the back' for this. I found my experience at 'The Ladykillers' to be one of such pleasure.