Ed Fringe announces programme - Bette & Joan: The Final Curtain at Assembly
09 June 2011
Foursight Theatre presents BETTE & JOAN: THE FINAL CURTAIN, in a co-production with Jacksons Lane and Richard Jordan Productions Ltd in association with Assembly and mac Birmingham.
previews at mac, Birmingham 28 - 30 July (click here for tickets)
at The Assembly, Edinburgh 3 - 29 August at 12.15 (13.35
Bette Davis finally confronts the ghost of Joan Crawford in the world premiere of 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 and opens at The Assembly, Edinburgh on 3 August.
"One should only say good of the dead. Joan Crawford is dead. Good."
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 &Joan: The Final Curtain is directed by Sarah Thom and Rebecca McCutcheon, who as the theatre 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
LISTINGS INFORMATION
Edinburgh Preview
Venue: mac, Birmingham
Dates and Times: Thurs 28 - Sat 30 July 8.15pm & Sat 30 July 4pm
Tickets: £10 (£7)
Box Office: 0121 446 3232 / www.macarts.co.uk
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Venue: Assembly George Square (One), Edinburgh
Dates and Times: 3 - 29 August at 12.15 (13.35)
No performances 10, 17, 22 August
Box Office: assemblyfestival.com / 0131 623 3030 / or Assembly box offices at Assembly Hall, Assembly George Square or Assembly Inverleith Allotments