Details

A rollercoaster ride through the history of the Mafia, from its birth in America a century ago, through Prohibition and the Mafia wars of the roaring Twenties, to the creation of modern day Las Vegas by the Mob and its subsequent influence in all avenues of contemporary American life, from business and politics to entertainment and sport. Using a backdrop of hundreds of original photographs of the period and a stunning arsenal of weapons, several notorious Mafia 'hits' are restaged by one of the world's surviving authorities on the history of the American Mafia and its influence on organised crime through the 20th Century. Meet legendary gangsters Al Capone, 'Lucky' Luciano, Meyer Lansky, 'Bugsy' Siegel, 'Dutch' Schultz - and not forgetting Murder Incorporated, the elite squad of Jewish assassins employed by the Mafia in the 1930s. In 1994 the Linguistics Division of the United Nations conducted an experiment to find the most recognisable word in the world - a word that is spelt the same, sounds the same, and has the same meaning across the globe, from Norway to Nigeria, Mongolia to Malaysia. Three universities were hired and almost 600 languages and lexicons were downloaded into a Kray Supercomputer. One word emerged - MAFIA... An Audience with the Mafia has already been staged to great acclaim across the UK and USA as well as to the Italian anti-Mafia police, the Militera Financia. It completely sold out a limited run at the New End earlier this year and returns for an extended season, with enhanced special effects and an even more spectacular arsenal of weapons.

Creatives/Company

Producer(s): Barrie C Stead Productions, Brian Daniels, New End Theatre
Director: Simon Langton