‘The Ladykillers’ plot a murder at The Junction
A scene from rehearsals.
Little old ladies can be fatal to con jobs – just ask the characters in the play The Ladykillers, which runs at The Junction in Alserkal Avenue from September 22 to 24.
The award-winning black comedy, adapted by Graham Linehan from film into a play, sees a criminal crew disguising themselves as a string quintet ahead of what they hope will be a daring heist. Unfortunately, what they haven’t accounted for is their interfering old landlady.
As for who these ruffians are, there’s a kingpin of course, a drunk ex-boxer, a conman, a charming thief and a ruthless killer with a strange phobia.
Director Sarah Potter, whose credits include The Shape of Things, 2020 and 3 Women, calls this play her toughest challenge yet. “It’s been a rollercoaster of a ride, and this has been my toughest directorial challenge yet, so it’s a good job I picked the best cast! All of the actors are brilliant in their roles. We’ve been rehearsing since July and I am still laughing out loud,” she says.
This is a production Potter has been wanting to put on for some time. “I’ve been wanting to put on The Ladykillers for the past four years. I love the 1960s Alec Guinness film, and I read rave reviews of the London West End production, starring Peter Capaldi (Dr Who, The Thick of It), and when I read the script I really wanted to do it as my first full length play as a director in Dubai. The script is clever and funny (written by the author of Father Ted and The IT Crowd), it has a large ensemble cast and a full-on split-level set. I love ensemble casts and proper sets,” she says.
“At the second rehearsal – more of a read-through, but with blocking [working out where each character is supposed to be on stage in each scene]. William Wilson, who plays Constable McDonald, is new to Dubai theatre, so I expected him to be a bit shaky at first, and would have to make allowances. He was off book [knew his lines completely] for all of his three scenes by that second rehearsal. Amazing.”
However, she says, “When I actually thought more about it, I had to be honest with myself and realise that it was too complex for a first stab at directing, and besides, the budget for a first-timer doesn’t stretch to an elaborate set. So, instead, I did the other play I’ve always wanted to do – Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things, which required minimal furniture and props. Just as well, as we were supposed to open April 2020, and eventually performed in August of that fateful COVID year!”
Tweaks and budgets
The farce called for West End-level sets, so, explains Potter, a few adjustments have had to be made. “Yes, but only where the script called for a West End budget, e.g. ‘the set revolves to reveal…’, and ‘Mrs Wilberforce, the landlady, bangs the pipes in the kitchen’ - we’re not going to build a whole kitchen just for 30 seconds of mirth,” she explains.
Black comedy pits a sophisticated criminal gang against a little old lady.
As for other challenges they faced, she says: “Because we are the first H72 Production of the season, we have necessarily had to rehearse over the summer. There are 10 people in the cast, plus two voice-overs, so you can imagine the difficulty in getting that many people – even just the seven core characters – together at the same time, what with holidays, sickness, etc. Plus, there are a myriad of authentic 1950s props and costumes to organise.”
Satya Baskaran, who plays the leader of the gang, says: "I feel that the great Alec Guinness in the 1956 film is synonymous with this character. Playing Professor Marcus has been a goal for a while. He’s an immensely fun character — animated, volatile, and incredibly OCD. I love doing voices, and for this it was a conscious decision to create a very specific kind of con man — a crook playing a man of total sophistication.”
And yet, all it takes to throw a spanner in the works of such a gang’s multi-layered operation is a little old lady.
Watch this for the laughs.
The details
Tickets for ‘The Ladykillers’, which runs from September 22 to 24 at 7.30pm at The Junction, are available on https://feverup.com/m/139637 , start at Dh120.