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Camden Theatre Review | Whatever happened to the cotton dress girl | New end Theatre
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE COTTON DRESS GIRL
New End Theatre
A DRESSING room adorned in pale pink and mauve, with wafting cigarette smoke hanging in the air, and a somehow-familiar blonde, ringletted wig set the scene for this emotional snapshot of Bette Davis’s life.
Backstage from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, the actress, skilfully played by Paula Wilcox, confides in the audience her inner musings on life and love, family and friends, co-workers and enemies – often with a level of emotion that contrasts vividly with the delicate surroundings.
Though a short one-act play, Davis transforms before our eyes, from the plain ‘cotton dress girl’, to a powerful sharp-tongued icon.
Quietly mirrored in the script and costume, her monologue gains momentum, passion and expletives as she transforms from restrained and uncertain, in fluffy dressing gown and slippers, to the instantly recognizable Bette Davis, with full trademark make-up (poached-egg eyes, she admits).
Very much a one-woman show in every sense of the word, a believable Davis brags in her American drawl about having bigger balls than anyone and her unsurpassed talent as an actor, but in the same minute reveals vulnerability, her offhand attitude betrayed by stories of loss and despair.
The smoky glamour of late 1950s Hollywood is reinforced by the name-dropping of actors, roles and personal nuances which come thick and fast.
However, as the audience chuckled knowingly at in-jokes, someone with a limited knowledge of the actress, such as myself, was left feeling somewhat left out.
It made only the slightest dent on the evening, however; I was drawn into the scene thanks to raw honesty and outright humanity of Davis. Cotton Dress Girl conveys a genuinely touching side to the silver screen idol that is rarely seen.
Until July 20
0870 033 2733 |
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