WHAT a challenge. Even greater perhaps than the PM’s chances of convincing teenagers they can cope with trigonometry, or Harry and Wills getting together anytime soon for a game of Charades.

The Lavender Hill Mob, the classic 1951 Ealing Comedy film has been re-written as a stage play. The film, which starred Alec Guinness and Stanley Hollloway told the story of Henry Holland, a bank clerk, who organises the movement of bullion lorries, then comes up with a plan to rob them.

Robbery wasn’t the problem; the difficulty was in hiding the gold, melting it down and selling it on. When Henry learns that his new lodger makes Eiffel Tower paperweights out of lead, he devises a plan to make his dream a reality.

We find the unusual criminal mastermind now living in Rio, telling his story of how he pulled off the robbery, making London’s police and bank officials look like plodding clowns.

Now, that in itself is easy enough to imagine on a theatre stage, but the film featured multiple locations – the Bank of England, streets of London car chases, east end canals - and Paris.

How can this theatre homage begin to capture the madcap madness of the movie, while limited by the physicality of the stage?

Well, thankfully, theatre is all too often the epicentre of incredible imagination, and this production, starring Miles Jupp and Justin Edwards uses a fairly simple device to tell the story.

The caper is not told as a straight flashback, but the daring robbery is re-enacted by Henry’s ex-pat toff pals in a Brazilian bar. Henry casts his chums, gives them notes on how to play their roles, and so we move from a boarding house to a warehouse, from the Bank of England to a Rio club.

We look in on an underground train and take part in a car chase. And of course, the cast play multiple roles, from crooks to cops to seagulls, with bananas as handguns.

But the stagecraft and theatrical ingenuity apart, can we root for the crooks? The original screenplay was written just after the war, when sympathies lay with the little guy, those who had made huge personal sacrifices.

Can we run with Henry and his friends as they progress from being small time chancers to major league criminals? Can we happily follow their descent (ascent?) into intoxicating immorality?

Perhaps that shouldn’t be too much problem, thanks to the immense societal division we recognise today, in a world where banker’s bonuses are reinstated while food banks proliferate.

Certainly, we do need a laugh right now, and with a combination of TEB Clarke’s original screenplay and Phil Porter’s modern additions there’s a chance to wallow in the silliness and slapstick that Ealing sold to the world.

And what better time of the year to retreat into a world of warmth and fun.

The Theatre Royal, Glasgow, January 30-February 4.

Play, Pie and a Pint

Oran Mor’s theatre success story Play, Pie and a Pint, like the nation’s waistline, is expanding.

The new spring season will see plays transfer from the West End of Glasgow to a range of theatre around Scotland such as Mull Theatre, Macrobert Arts Centre and Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

But what can these venues look forward to? The ‘Fresh Perspectives’ season begins with Alison Carr’s dark comic drama Until It’s Gone, which explores the idea of a world without women.

Meet Me at The Knob is renowned playwright Johnny McKnight’s new musical inspired by the real-life story of Glasgow’s White Hats, the gang of male prostitutes who ruled the Broomielaw in the Twenties by using blackmail.

The season will also feature a new play Faye’s Red Lines, by Rab C. Nesbitt creator Ian Pattison, in which a chance happening sees a woman examine her past and ask how she can move forward in the future.

Rachel Flynn’s new comedy Keepin’ the Heid features a bawdy Mary Queen of Scots and Lesley Hart’s Welcome to Bannockburn sees a father and daughter working together at Stirling’s finest five-star historical tour.

Noisemaker is back with the smash-hit Scots, Uma Nada-Rajah will take us on a dark comedic romp in The Great Replacement and Meghan Tyler’s Bloodbank examines power play dynamics between a Tory MP and an NHS Nurse having a ‘risqué arrangement.

Matthew McVarish returns to Oran Mor with Quietus, and Oliver Emanuel’s new comedy-drama Storytelling showcases how the power of stories can help us overcome the darkest moments in life.

Who could miss Kim Millar’s tale of ‘marrows, mayhem and murder’ mini musical The Worm Who Turned, set in the allotment world and Linda Duncan McLaughlin’s The Merry Wives of The Wyndford, an all-Glasgow update of Shakespeare’s riotous comedy.

JD Stewart demonstrates ‘bubbly delicious consequences’ in The Devil Drinks Cava, and Áine King will debut her powerful climate crisis themed drama Burning Bright.

Other plays by first-time PPP writers include Kathy McKean’s The Spark about a woman who develops telekinetic powers, Grant O’Rourke’s paranoia-driven comedy Leopards Ate My Face is beguiling and Aodhan Gallagher offers his new comedy-drama Write-off, about two gay men from very different generations with conflicting beliefs and biases.

Watch out for plays Davina and Goliath, by Dave Anderson and David Bailey.

Oran Mor, Glasgow, from February 20.

Don’t Miss: It’s the time of the year (January 25) for wallowing in the words and wisdom of Burns, all the while stuffing your face with Gaviscon-demanding food and drink - while anticipating the chance to channel the spirit of Andy Stewart and ceilidh ‘till your knees buckle. At events all over Scotland.