Bette & Joan: The Final Curtain embarks on a national tour March/April 2012
08 January 2012
Press Release
Foursight Theatre, Richard Jordan Productions Ltd, Jacksons Lane, in association with Assembly and mac birmingham present
BETTE AND JOAN - THE FINAL CURTAIN
On National tour from 13 March
Bette Davis finally confronts the ghost of Joan Crawford in Bette & Joan: The Final Curtain, a new play by Foursight Theatre which takes a wry, feisty and irreverent look at two of Hollywood's greatest icons. The show tours nationally in March/April 2012 following a hugely successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Jacksons Lane, London in 2011.
"One should only say good of the dead. Joan Crawford is dead. Good." Bette Davis
Now on her own deathbed, Davis is forced by Hollywood hacks Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons to finally confront the ghost of her nemesis, Crawford herself. And of course, just because someone's dead doesn't mean they've changed.
Foursight Theatre (creators of Thatcher The Muscial! and Can Any Mother Help Me?) present this new comedic piece drawing on the lives of two women battling for supremacy.
When Bette Davis died in 1989 at the age of 81, she left behind a legacy of films that spanned the best part of a century of American movie making. During her career she won two Oscars and was nominated for ten.
She was and still is recognized as one of the greatest of female screen icons from the golden age of Hollywood. Known as ‘battling Bette' she fully lived the glamorous film star lifestyle but beneath the gloss was a life strewn with the wrecks of four marriages, empty liquor bottles and embittered children.
One comforting thought for her at the time of her death might have been the knowledge that she had outlived her bitterest rival, Joan Crawford, by twelve years. Crawford had led an equally tumultuous life, echoing Bette's on several levels: four husbands, a battle with the bottle and a daughter writing a vicious ‘tell all' book about her, albeit posthumously. Crawford died in 1977 at the age of 73.
These two icons of the silver screen only ever made one full film together, Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?, a film noir thriller directed by Robert Aldrich. It was an astounding success and shot the two fading stars from the twilight of their careers back in to the limelight - both them and the feud that supposedly existed between them.
Bette and Joan: The Final Curtain is directed by Sarah Thom and Rebecca McCutcheon, who as the thetare company Angels in the Architecture received critical acclaim for their site-specific production of Dido - Queen of Carthage which played at The Church of St Barnabas in Soho, London and later in the state rooms of Kensington Palace.
Foursight are renowned for creating vibrant theatre which explores history through the eyes of women: unknown, famous and infamous. This new comedic play follows in the footsteps of productions such as Thatcher The Musical! , Can Any Mother Help Me?, and Six Dead Queens and an Inflatable Henry.
‘Sharp, imaginative, intelligent... and extremely funny' (BBC Front Row on Foursight Theatre).
ENDS
For further details / images / interview requests, contact Thomas Wildish, General Manager on 01902 714257 or thomaswildish@foursighttheatre.co.uk
CREATIVE TEAM
Click here for Creative Team details
LISTINGS INFORMATION
The production tours to: Wolverhampton / Salford / Winchester / Derby / Stamford / Kendal / Leeds / Hereford / Norwich
Click here for listings details