LADYKILLER By Madeline Gould Debuts at Edinburgh Fringe

The Thelmas are making a bid to take Edinburgh Fringe by storm with their new show, Ladykiller by Madeline Gould. This audacious new comedy charts one women's journey from violent oppression to bloody revolution.

 

A chambermaid, a hotel room and a dead woman. It's not what it looks like, really, it's not. It was self-defence... and anyway the woman was asking for it

The chambermaid considers herself to be a fairly normal person; she reads books. She pretended to read the party manifestos at the General Election. She's even read The Psychopath Test and she's pretty sure she's not one so...

Ladykiller is a blood-soaked morality tale about social responsibility, zero-hours contracts and tearing up the gender rule book on psychopathy; a jet-black comedy for the age of the gig economy.

Ladykiller presents us with a genuinely complex and compelling female character, tapping into the feminist zeitgeist in a most unexpected way.

Writer, Madeline Gould explains: 'It is so rare that we see the character of a female criminal drawn with as much complexity as their male counterparts and it is important to me that, in our battle for equality, we accept, explore and embrace the female capacity for violence, criminality and evil as much as we celebrate the positives. Ladykiller was an opportunity for me to explore my own frustrations about the world around me and to push my reaction to the limit; from the smallest personal internal issues all the way up to a global perspective. The play is a big "what if?" and an exploration of how female criminality is and has historically been treated differently to male criminality.'

Ladykiller Director, Madelaine Moore, was keen to push the boundaries for the dark themes of the play, particularly in relation to the question of 'strong female' protagonists: 'For so long female characters have been expected to demonstrate the female experience with plucky stoicism, and even if they are flawed, they are only allowed to be so to a certain extent - they can't just be totally screwed up and downright nasty. I am a bit bored of characters I can root for if I am honest! Recently there seem to be more of these types of characters emerging, particularly from writers like Gillian Flynn, but we haven't quite got there with theatre yet. I am hoping we can change that.'

LADYKILLER comes hot on the heels of The Thelmas' London run and National tour of hit show, the twice OFFIE nominated Coconut by Guleraana Mir, produced by The Thelmas in association with Ovalhouse Theatre, with the support of In Good Company, the East Midlands flagship artist development programme.

The current production of Ladykiller is the result of research, development and support from Oldham Coliseum,Theatre N16 and Ovalhouse Theatre.

Age recommendation: 14yrs +

Warnings: Murder, profanity, blood (stage blood throughout), violence, complex themes around violence and murder.

Website: https://www.thethelmas.co.uk/ladykiller

Photo: Greg Veit Photography

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