New Wimbledon Studio Theatre – until Saturday 15th July 2023
Reviewed by Carly Burlinge
5*****
Platt Productions brings you a dark comedy called Bad Ladz – written by Niall Ransome and directed by Rosa Crompton.
It tells the story of best mates Mickey (Freddy Elletson) and Darren (Jay Mailer). When Darren decides to come clean and admit to Mickey, who has recently lost his mum and feeling low, that he may have taken things a little too far, by kidnapping Parashar (Nicholas Prasad) from Asda down the plant-based aisle during his shift and taking him back to Mickey’s Nan’s Bungalow. Where he has tied him to a chair with an Asda bag over his head holding him hostage because he owes him money. Mickey, who cannot quite believe what is going down at his Nan’s place, only then discovers it is about to get a lot worse when Tony (Carl Stone) turns up to help! Tony has a love for 80’s music, does not like violence and passes wind when he gets nervous or angry and having a curry the night before causes a bit of a stink amongst friends. With Mickey trying to take control of the situation to hide their identity by wearing tights and Tony and Darren deciding what weapon is best to use, a wooden spoon or a butter knife! All this whilst trying to be menacing, scary and intimidating but unfortunately their plans go a little off route with conversations now happening amongst one another as well as the hostage no longer feeling like a hostage.
When new light comes to the situation that Darren has kidnapped the cousin of the local lunatic Raj (Maanuv Thiara) things begin to take a sudden turn and they now find themselves in a much darker situation then they were in before with Darren admitting that he only owed him £20 to everyone’s unbelievable amazement. Will they be able to work as a team or will they crumble under pressure as they realise what they have got themselves into.
I really enjoyed this production. They all played their characters exceptionally well and they showed a great connection amongst one another expressing great emotion at times alongside much laughter with some great comedy. I loved how comic dance was used in between scenes making the audience roar with laughter. This truly was a fascinating, laugh out loud production with a touch of darkness along with a few twists and done extremely well. Overall, it was a great evening out and a great watch that I recommend you go and see.