Bette and Joan: The Final Curtain

115270 original

Foursight Theatre, the company behind Thatcher The Musical!, brings us a two-actor show exploring the lives of, and relationship between, actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Davis is on her deathbed and Crawford has been sent back to earth from the afterlife—which is presided over by Hollywood gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons—to bring the fading star to the next world. Davis obstinately refuses and the production details this overnight confrontation between her and her would-be Charon.

The end result is loving homage after homage: to the Golden Age of Hollywood, to the actresses themselves and especially to their only film together, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Those familiar with the twosome will recognise the slightly distorted reimaginings of that film's most famous lines and set pieces – a ceaseless booting to the head, a surprise beneath the lid of a serving platter and closing ice-cream cornets on a beach. Our two performers, Sarah Toogood and Sarah Thom, succeed in ghostly accurate portrayals, and battle wits with excellent comic timing.

All of this is brilliantly well-executed - the sound design is lively and fun, the script wry and engaging. The set is an elaborate, minutely-detailed sprawling affair, the back of which hosts projections from where the otherworldly gossip columnists and occasional archive interview footage with the two Hollywood starlets appear. Although some of the references may go over Davis/Crawford virgins' heads (an unavoidable flaw), this is a show to be enjoyed by all.