6 – 11 February

The ‘Mob’, for anyone who doesn’t know the story, is an ironic title. The Lavender Hill Mob is a comedy caper based on a film script of the same name by T.E.B.Clarke who won an Oscar for best film script in 1953. The ‘mob’ in question is a motley group of opportunist criminals and petty thieves who carry out a cunning plan to smuggle gold bullion out of the country and into France. The author of the plan is punctilious Mr.Holland (Miles Jupp) a time serving bank employee who has spent his working life arranging the transport of gold bullion for the Bank of England. His apparent lack of imagination and ambition in fact hide dreams of living the life of Riley in Rio, which is where we find him at the beginning of the show.

Rio, in the popular imagination, was the favourite haunt of ex-pat ne’er-do-wells in the post war period when the story is set. Writer, Phil Porter, has come up with the device of having the rum collection of Brits abroad act out the story of how Mr.Holland came to be the great benefactor and party thrower. The performance is being given for Farrow (Guy Burgess) who has come out from Scotland Yard to feel the collar of the happy and compliant miscreant who wants to tell the story in full for one last time.

Therein lies the central flaw in the show, for what results is a narration by a group of Brits-abroad amateur actors. Scene setting took up too much time and tended to drag rather than move forward the plot apace. Consequently the characters were never fully formed and did not have the chance to develop. They were in the main done as a selection of funny voices or embarrassing stereotypes and there was a definite sense of sharing out the lines of plot so everybody gets a go.

Mr Jupp’s journey from wage slave to happy-go-lucky philanthropist suffered from being done in reverse. The grinding monotony of his daily life was left as mere statement and the audience were thus not able to enjoy the excitement of a successful and life changing heist. In the same vein there was little jeopardy in any of the chases, particularly the race to catch the schoolgirls who had inadvertently been sold the gold models of the Eiffel tower which were made by Holland’s accomplice, Pendlebury (Justin Edwards) in his novelties foundry.

The story has plenty of twists and turns, but this treatment hasn’t found a way to fully engage its audience.

★★☆☆☆  Graham Wyles, 7th February, 2023

Photo credit: Hugo Glendinning