Between the Pages

I saw this fabulous production at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, on 2nd February 2013.  The story concerns five robbers who pose as musicians, and the leader of whom rents a room from the elderly Mrs Wilburforce, with the plan that the room will be the perfect place to plan their upcoming robbery.  However, they have reckoned without the interference of the landlady, and when she discovers their plan, they have to come up with a way to…dispose of her.  But this seemingly frail old lady proves a much tougher match than they had realised!

The film The Ladykillers was made in the 1950s, starring Alec Guinness as the leader of the team of criminals, and Katie Johnson as Mrs Wilburforce.  In this stage production, these roles were taken respectively by Paul Bown and Michele Dotrice.  The rest of the cast is made of up Clive Mantle, Chris McCalphey, William Troughton Cliff Parisi (as the other robbers), Marcus Taylor as a police officer who is more than used to hearing Mrs Wilburforce’s suspicions about various members of the community, and Beverley Walding as a friend of the elderly lady.

The show was fantastic, with extremely clever staging.  Unlike in the film, this production takes place almost entirely within the house.  The sets were very imaginative, the house itself provided a few chuckles, being all lop-sided and haphazardly standing as it was.  All of the leads were excellent, as one would expect from a West End production, now touring.  The script was sharp and snappy, and the audience were laughing throughout.  The heist scene itself was very cleverly played out with the use of mechanical toy cars, and both the build-up to the robbery, and the aftermath were very funny, with the criminals having to maintain their pretence of being classical musicians whenever Mrs Wilburforce is around.

The show has been very successful, and it’s easy to see why.  I would have been delighted to see the same show again immediately afterwards.  Quite simply, it is a triumph all round, and a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

For more information about this production, please click here.)

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Click here for my review of the 1955 film.

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