Play of the week: The Ladykillers

Vaudeville Theatre, London WC2

Paul Taylor
Friday 19 July 2013 16:30 BST
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Uproarious farce: Graham Linehan's inspired adaptation of William Rose's The Ladykillers
Uproarious farce: Graham Linehan's inspired adaptation of William Rose's The Ladykillers (Dan Tsantilis)

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Back in the West End, Graham Linehan's inspired adaptation of the Ealing comedy converts William Rose's original screenplay into uproarious farce, fizzing with fresh gags.

Angela Thorne is a sweetly doddery Mrs Wilberforce, whose home a gang of criminals hide out in, posing as a string quintet, only to kill one another as they dither over dispatching her.

Sean Foley's production opens a nice vein of satire about how "creative" folk get away with murder. The replacement cast lack the lunatic flair of their predecessors but John Gordon Sinclair brings an attractively sarcastic Scots quizzicality to the criminal mastermind – and the comic material is indestructible.

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