The Ladykillers			Download the programme.
Comedy is a real killer
WHAT Grasmere does today, the West End does next year. Grasmere Players have achieved a wonderful coup: permission to stage the classic Ealing comedy, The Ladykillers, a favour rarely bestowed on amateur dramatic societies, especially in a year when plans are afoot for a revival of the play in the West End of London in 2006.
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		But Ealing Studios can rest assured: the Players have not let them down. From the delightful programme (complete with musical score) to the fabulous set so effective in recreating a run-down 1950s boarding house - one can almost smell cooked cabbage on the stairs - to the sight and sounds of the passing steam train, the production is a delight.
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The action centres on a group of villains who conceal their real plans to commit a major robbery under the guise of pretending to be a group of musicians undertaking serious rehearsals. There is strong acting from Vivienne Rees as the apparently naive and rather dotty landlady Mrs Wilberforce, who rents her upstairs room to this assorted group of spivs.
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		Look out for Nigel Crook as Louis Harvey, clutching his violin case in true Mafia style, and Hugh Wright, spookily effective as Professor Marcus, gang leader and negotiator. But the gang have reckoned without the force of womanhood and their plans gradually unravel as their landlady unwittingly foils them at every turn.
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Delightful Ealing comedy moments abound with neat timing and visual gags made all the more effective by the ingenious set. A slight slackening of pace and tension in the second half is perhaps inevitable, given the structure of the plot, but excellent acting from all the cast (even the parrot) make the most of every comic moment. An evening of real delight not to be missed. The production continues Wednesdays and Fridays in June and July.
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Pam Williamson The Westmorland Gazette, 24th June 2005.