The Ladykillers Review
The Ladykillers
The Lowry, Manchester
26-30 March 2013
Reviewed by Catherine Joyce
This was our first trip to the Lowry and the directions on the website seemed easy to follow. Unfortunately the brown Lowry signs that we were meant to follow once we reached the end of the motorway didn’t seem to be there which resulted in us making a slight detour, however it only delayed us by a few minutes.
Once we reached The Lowry there was a multi-story car park which cost £6, although if we had eaten at one of the restaurants in the Outlet Centre, either before or after the performance and had our parking ticket validated the parking would have been free.
The Ladykillers is a comedy, adapted from the 1955 film about a group of criminals who rent a room in Mrs Wilberforce’s (Michele Dotrice) higgledy-piggledy house. Lead by criminal mastermind, Professor Marcus (Paul Brown), they pose as a string quartet to cover a planned King's Cross robbery. When Mrs Wilberforce learns of the plot she has to go! The members of the gang are a Romanian gangster, a closet transvestite, an ex-boxer and a light fingered young man who is constantly popping pills. All the characters were portrayed brilliantly and the script is so full of humour we laughed our way through the play, along with the rest of the audience. One particular highlight was the Little Britain/Pythonesque troop of old ladies who attended Mrs Wilberforce’s afternoon concert.
All the action takes place within Mrs Wilberforce’s house, an amazing set with haphazard rooms and stairs including moving furniture whenever a train passes.
The actual robbery was portrayed using remote control cars, which for me was the only weak part of an otherwise excellent performance.
Rating: 5/5 
Tickets cost from £14-£35. Running time: 135 minutes
For more information or to book tickets click here.
