3rd February 2017
We have just enjoyed another fantastic night at the Apollo Theatre. This busy theatre, based in the heart of Newport, is consistently developing top nights out! Their production of The Ladykillers is a hoot... great cast, a stunning set and immaculate attention to detail. Marylyn Ford plays a wonderfully cautious Mrs Louisa Wilberforce and Michael Arnell plays Professor Marcus like a pro.
The fantastic set
The Ladykillers – one of Ealing Studios’ finest and funniest offerings, has been reworked for the stage by Graham Linehan, his other credits include Father Ted and The IT Crowd. Di Evans deserves a special mention for her magnificent direction...
Most people will know of this immensely entertaining crime caper as one of Ealing Studios’ finest offerings, in which elderly widow Mrs. Wilberforce, who likes to report suspicious behaviour to the police, rents out rooms in her house to the dapper Professor Marcus (originally played by Alec Guinness) and his cohort of thieves without honour, constantly bickering among themselves. Posing as a string quintet, they pull off a bank robbery, but slip up in front of the old lady as they try to escape. Agreed that they need to murder her, the bumbling crooks prove no match for Mrs Wilberforce’s old-fashioned Victorian values: they’re dispatched to their early graves with witty heartlessness, as she goes magisterially on her way, hatpin firmly in place.
10 out of 10.
