The Ladykillers is a classic black comedy; a sweet little old lady, alone in her house, is pitted against a gang of criminal misfits who will stop at nothing...Posing as amateur musicians, Professor Marcus and his gang rent rooms in the lopsided house of sweet but strict Mrs Wilberforce. The villains plot to involve her, unwittingly, in Marcus' brilliantly conceived heist job. The police are left stumped but Mrs Wilberforce becomes wise to their ruse and Marcus concludes that there is only one way to keep the old lady quiet ...
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The Ladykillers is a classic black comedy; a sweet little old lady, alone in her house, is pitted against a gang of criminal misfits who will stop at nothing...Posing as amateur musicians, Professor Marcus and his gang rent rooms in the lopsided house of sweet but strict Mrs Wilberforce. The villains plot to involve her, unwittingly, in Marcus' brilliantly conceived heist job. The police are left stumped but Mrs Wilberforce becomes wise to their ruse and Marcus concludes that there is only one way to keep the old lady quiet. With only her parrot, General Gordon, to help her, Mrs Wilberforce is alone with five desperate men. But who will be forced to face the music?
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Add this copy of The Ladykillers to cart. $26.39, new condition, Sold by Booksplease rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Southport, MERSEYSIDE, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2012 by Samuel French Ltd.
Add this copy of The Ladykillers to cart. $31.79, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2013 by Samuel French Ltd.
This play was a hit when it was produced in London in 2011 with Peter Capaldi in the role that Alec Guinness had played in the original 1955 film, as the ringleader of a criminal gang hiding out in an unsuspecting old lady's house. I never really got the Guinness version, which like other comedies from the Ealing studio is usually described with terms like "whimsical" and "very British." Graham Linehan's stage version, while preserving the situation and characters of the original, ratchets up the settings to full-on farce with a contemporary feel (toilet humor and all) that's much more relatable to an American like me. Reading this it dawned on me the parallels between "Ladykillers" and "Arsenic and Old Lace," and when I went back and watched the original film I finally got what all the fuss was about. If you have a community theater group with some good comic actors and would like to try your hands at a rowdy black comedy I would definitely give this a try.
