‘You should only say good of the dead. Joan Crawford is dead. Good.’ Bette Davis
The queue for the studio auditorium at the St James Theatre included a chopsy old lady in a wheelchair. She muttered and chuntered to herself and didn’t have to show a ticket to be allowed in. She appeared to be a critical relative of one of the cast members – but when I saw her again she was being lifted onto a central chaise longue. Bette Davis had arrived on stage.
Bette & Joan: The FInal Curtain is a devised theatre piece originally created by Foursight Theatre, starring Sarah Thom as Bette Davis and Sarah Toogood as Joan Crawford. Much affection is obvious in the portrayals of these two stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, renowned for their mutual dislike and feuding. Davis and Crawford only appeared together in one film -Whatever happened to Baby Jane – yet their names are forever linked together.
The scene is Davis’ death bed in 1989. Her two Oscar statuettes are nearby, as is a framed picture of her beloved daughter BD and a secret stash of vodka. Her chosen reading is Mommie Dearest, the unsympathetic memoir by Joan Crawford’s daughter Christina. Across the room is a large wardrobe, to be used as a screen for projections and also, á la C S Lewis, the portal into and out of the next world. Cher’s If I could turn back time plays poignantly on the radio, giving way to a fun soundscape by Elena Pena. Across the stage there is also a Hollywood dressing table, complete with wigs and lightbulb-surrounded mirror that will come into play later.
That Joan Crawford has been sent to fetch Bette Davis to Heaven suggests that not everything we are to see is definitive fact, although writer James Greaves says only 5-10% of the script is invented. When Crawford arrives Davis is inconveniently not actually dead, causing problems which are referred to a pair of Hollywood showbiz hacks who appear in video projection. Has she seen her life flash before her eyes?, they ask, as though that is the only way to tell if someone is dying. She hasn’t, but she starts to… and as her mind turns to her great rival we are suddenly privy to episodes from their careers, their marriages and are able to witness their, erm, feisty interactions.
Built on thorough research Bette and Joan is a delight for lovers of the actresses and their films. Aficionados will enjoy spotting quotations, wisecracks and props from movies. The two Sarahs have clearly spent hours studying their subjects and they move with some of the rhythms of the Hollywood actresses, borrowing gestures that recall the two women.
Davis and Crawford had a well documented bad relationship, but this devised documentary points out the similarities in their lives. It even hints that – for them and us – under a difficult relationship there may be a friendship worth pursuing. But there’s a lot of squabbling and even though Davis jokes and Crawford dances, it is a sad portrayal of lives which have descended into unhappiness and loneliness.
Don’t leave before the credits.
Bette & Joan: The Final Curtain is part of the Icons season at the St James Studio. More details
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