G.bod Theatre present double bill of solo performances celebrating the lives of two very different movie icons.
Actor Peter Wyngarde, Britain’s Best Dressed Personality (1970) and best known for playing the moustachioed TV sleuth Jason King, was one of Britain’s best-known faces until, in 1975, he spectacularly fell from grace after his conviction for gross indecency. Garth Holcombe stars.
In Queen Bette, Jeanette Cronin reprises her acclaimed Bette Davis in a show in which the inimitable Hollywood legend talks life, art, four husbands, two Oscars and the building of a reputation that characterised her as Tinseltown’s uber-bitch.
Audrey’s Jason Blake saw Queen Bette in 2015:
“From her opening “Son of a bitch!”, actor and co-devisor Jeanette Cronin spends the entire hour of this show in near constant motion as Bette relates the story of the precocious child who would become American film’s first lady in the years prior to World War II, thanks to her performances in films such as Of Human Bondage, Jezebel, Dark Victory and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.
Queen Bette is a bare-bones production that would benefit from a more focused stage design, but that’s a minor quibble. In this intimate space, it’s all eyes on Cronin, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Davis at times but knows better than to rely on it. Even if your interest in Davis is fleeting, this engrossing little showcase is worth seeking out.”