A sweet little old lady

The cast of The Ladykillers include Carl Bland as Professor Marcus, Annie Whittle as Mrs Louisa Wilberforce, Paul Minifie as Constable Macdonald and Byron Coll as Harry Robinson. Photo / Nick Reed

Writer Graham Lineham, creator of Father Ted, has updated the classic 1955 Ealing slapstick film The Ladykillers for stage. It’s a case of a gang versus their wily landlady, says Dionne Christian

Actor Byron Coll is best known for playing Tim, the hyper-enthusiastic rugby fan on the Mastercard commercials, so he has no doubt his slapstick skills will come to the fore in his latest role.

He appears in The Ladykillers, an adaptation by Graham Linehan, of the 1955 Ealing Studios comedy film about a gang of misfit criminals trying to mastermind a bank robbery. Posing as musicians, they hole up in the boarding house of "sweet old lady" Mrs Wilberforce, who soon wises up to their ruse, leaving them, they believe, with no choice but to silence her.

Revived on the West End in 2011, Linehan's adaptation was nominated for five Olivier Awards and won over sceptical critics who wondered whether it would be a straightforward revival of the movie-for-stage and, if so, how dated it would look. Instead, they found a play which kept the original plot but added a lot more physical comedy with quirkier characters, new gags and sharper dialogue - all of which you might expect from the writer of anarchic TV comedy Father Ted.

In an interview with the Guardian newspaper before the play's debut, Linehan declared the secret to successful adapting was - "often but not always" - to "first, plant dynamite around the ground floor of the original. After the detonation, you keep what's still standing and bid farewell to the rest".

Coll is no stranger to slapstick, but he reckons his background as a musician will help. He has been playing piano since his childhood best friend, Lance Morrison, got a piano when they were both 6. "I could hear him, through the window, practising and I'd go over to his house for a lift to school and we had about 15 minutes before we left so every morning, I'd sit down and play ... Eventually he gave up and the piano came to our house."

Byron Coll. Photo / Nick Reed

Now, the 30-year-old also plays double bass, guitar and banjo, and composes music for other theatrical productions including the Auckland Theatre Awards. But the violin is one instrument he's never managed to master and that's the one his obsessive compulsive bank robber character is meant to play.

"But it doesn't matter because we're all meant to be terrible musicians but, as an actor, I think it's important because it helps you to understand - in many different ways - rhythm and pitch and how you blend that into performance. In comedy, timing is everything."

Auckland Theatre Company's production includes some of our best comedy actors - Annie Whittle, Paul Minifie, Carl Bland, Peter Hayden, Andrew Grainger, Toby Leech and Hera Dunleavy, with guest appearances from ATC's 65+ theatre group, Marvellous.

For Minifie, it's a welcome opportunity to return to the stage. He spent 20 years as manager of the Maidment Theatre and, despite being involved in acting since his Wairarapa College days, didn't act at all during that time.

"There's great satisfaction in service and the Maidment was - is - a theatre and I was around actors and all the things of a theatre, plus it gave me the opportunity to be actively involved in the life of the university. I chaired a number of committees, dished out grants so it was a rich environment to be part of."

Since stepping down two years ago, he has appeared in ATC's Anne Boleyn and keeps busy doing TV and radio voiceovers as well as working with St Matthew's Chamber Orchestra narrating its productions. "Doing something with a lot of laughs is fun and to see an audience rolling about with laughter is rare and wonderful."

Co-director Colin McColl saw the original film, which starred Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness, with his parents but says he was too young to understand it all. Linehan's script, on the other hand, had him laughing aloud and instantly picturing which actors would play what roles. He didn't hold auditions and got his dream cast. He says Minifie has the right "avuncular charm" to play Constable McDonald, the only police officer who gives Mrs Wilberforce the time of day.

McColl hasn't revisited the original film, saying he didn't want to have that playing on his mind. Fellow director Cameron Rhodes has watched the 1955 film, saying for him it was important to have a sense of the play's lineage. "But I will say the way Linehan has revived it has ensured it's a play very much for this century."

Performance
What: The Ladykillers
Where and when: Maidment Theatre, February 12-March 7