Elderly, widowed Mrs Louisa Wilberforce lives quietly with her parrot, General Gordon, in a genteel Victorian house in 1950s London. She is more than pleased when the charming Professor Marcus rents her spare room to rehearse his classical quintet. Little does she know that her guests are really a bunch of oddball gangsters planning a bank heist.
This legendary Ealing black comedy is adapted for the stage by Graham Linehan (co-writer of Father Ted).
Whether or not you’re familiar with the macabre comedy of the original movie, you will love the madcap drollery of Linehan’s surreal scenarios.
The lavender-scented landlady’s lop-sided, chintz-filled folly of a home becomes a madhouse as the deluded criminal mastermind and his gang of unhinged eccentrics plot their doomed heist.
Co-directors Sean Burnside and Matthew Hope say: “We look forward to transporting our audience to visit this crazy, ramshackle corner of 1950s King’s Cross. If our rehearsals are anything to go by they should enjoy seeing this unlikely bunch of hapless villains thwarted by a fearless band of tea-fuelled old ladies.”
THE LADYKILLERS runs from Tuesday 18 to Saturday 22 July at 7.30pm. Tickets are £13.50 (£11 conc) available from the Box Office on 0191 265 5020 or online at peoplestheatre.co.uk
We have also recently announced our New Season of plays, starting in September with George Orwell’s ANIMAL FARM, a fable that continues to ring true as the early 21st century witnesses a wave of resurgent populism.
There’s something for everyone between then and February – audiences can visit Maplins holiday camp with classic comedy HI-DE-HI!, spend Halloween with DRACULA, enjoy tinsel and tears in Ayckbourn’s uproarious SEASON’S GREETINGS and round the year off with our fun-packed family Panto ALADDIN. We then welcome in the New Year with Agatha Christie whodunit GO BACK FOR MURDER and round things off with Hugh Whitemore’s tender and moving portrait of Alan Turing in BREAKING THE CODE.