The Lavender Hill Mob is the most recent Ealing Comedy Classic to find itself onstage.

Justin Edwards as Pendlebury and Miles Jupp as Holland in The Lavender Hill Mob | Photo © Hugo Glendinning
The essential plot is intact but the choice to retell it via a group of Ex-Pats at a New Year’s Eve Party is underwhelming.
The anticipation and tension of the thrust of the play is lost and in essence, it is simply a group enacting and narrating everything; which is limiting and disappointing.
It is not for the hard working of the cast, who slide in and out of character with ease but more about the framework within which it is being told.
Holland (Miles Jupp) takes the central role and gallantly takes a gamble with the heavy script and poor pace. Pendlebury (Justin Edwards) is actually the Ambassador playing Pendlebury, so the heavy-handed set-up stalls the action as characters are obliged to remind us who they are.
There are some good moments of physical theatre whilst the design by Francis O’Connor is simplistic but effective for its use.
Directed by Jeremy Sams with Illusions and Music by Tim Sutton the production just does not seem to find its feet.
There have been some glorious adaptations of infamous films to date but I am unsure this will join the ranks of the Lady Killers or the fabulous 39 Steps.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Reviewer: Petra Schofield