One for The Ladykillers

The CADOS Ladykillers cast, from left, Ashley Hambrook, Dave Reid, David Walker, Sue Hilton, Steven Catterall and Barry Callander

Classic Ealing comedy The Ladykillers comes to the stage of Chorley Little Theatre this month in an hilarious new adaptation performed by CADOS.

Set in the 1950s, a group of musicians rent a room at old Mrs Wilberforce’s rickety house near King’s Cross in London.

But the five oddballs, led by wily Professor Marcus, are secretly criminals plotting to rob the local bank and use the old lady’s innocence to their advantage.

The robbery goes without a hitch, but with the local bobby on the case they find themselves trapped in the house and run into one problem after another – from hiding the loot, to performing a concert in front of Mrs Wilberforce’s friends.

Graham Linehan, the writer of TV’s Father Ted and The IT Crowd, has rewritten the 1955 film for theatre and CADOS is among the first amdrams to stage it.

This has been quite a challenge for director Sean Duxbury, who said: “It’s one of the funniest scripts I’ve ever read, but it was written for a big theatre so finding solutions to the wonky house and scenes set on the roof has taken a lot of time.”

“Luckily, I have a fantastic cast who make everything funny so there should be nothing to worry about.”

NODA Best Actor award winner Dave Reid plays Professor Marcus, the part played in the film by Alec Guinness, and he’s backed up by David Walker as the Major, Andy Burke as ‘One Round’ with Steven Catterall and Ashley Hambrook in the Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom parts.

Sue Hilton (recently seen as a lady of letters in Talking Heads) stars as Mrs Wilberforce. Barry Callander is the policeman on the case.

The play runs from Monday October20 to Saturday 25.

Tickets cost £6 Monday-Wednesday, £8 Thursday-Saturday from Malcolm’s Musicland 01257 264362 or www.chorleytheatre.com