BETTE AND JOAN

Copyright © 2011 Tipton Pictures 

Bette and Joan, new play by Anton Burge

Celebrity feuds always get the gays going. And there is possibly no greater feud than that between legendary screen stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.

Anton Burge’s new play Bette and Joan promises us what we have always wished for. A scintillating no holds barred peep into what may or may not have happened when these two tumultuous stars finally worked together on Bob Aldrich’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane ? in 1962.

Starring Greta Scacchi as Davis and Anita Dobson, of EastEnders fame, as Crawford audiences are treated to a bitchy two-hander as the actresses dish the dirt on one another from their respective dressing rooms.

The premise is simple and was calling out for dramatic treatment. It follows in a the footsteps of the infamous book by Shaun Considine, The Divine Feud, and of course, the cult film Mommie Dearest which unsparingly documented Crawford’s terrifying descent into alcoholism and child abuse. It should be a guaranteed winner.
And it is. In part. The intimate two hour drama is a guilty pleasure. Scacchi and Dobson successfully build rapport with the audience as they reveal their animosity for one another in a series of increasingly scathing asides and put-downs. The result is undeniably delicious and often hysterical to watch.

Scacchi is superbly cast as Davis. She has it all: the ballsy swagger, the clipped speech and the celebrated no-nonsense pragmatism. Even the way she puts the clip in her hair is quintessential Davis. It’s as close as we will get to the larger than life star.

Anita Dobson also convinces as Joan, but just as Crawford was arguably handed the weaker part as Blanche Hudson in Baby Jane, she is given the less compelling character here. The problem is that the part of Joan is not as carefully drawn as that of Bette. 

Crawford was a deeply complex woman, yet sadly Burge’s script ignores this, repeatedly failing to explore this woman’s damaged psyche. Instead, he plays her for laughs. There are the inevitable references to her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and wry comments on her parenting, but ultimately we learn nothing new about the former MGM star. The repeated, lazy references to Crawford’s love of her fans and inescapable vanity rapidly wear thin. 

Burge wrote a play based on Bette Davis back in 2008 and he clearly understands the woman’s motivations. Yet, it is almost as if he has merely cut and pasted his understanding of this character on to a new script and thrown in a stereotypical representation of Crawford for good measure. Part of the problem may also be that, as good as Dobson is with the very limited material, she will always be compared to Faye Dunaway’s searing performance as the star in Mommie Dearest. 

The real issue, however, is that there is no real dramatic tension in this tale of mutual rivalry and detestation. Many of the lines have been taken out of interviews with the actresses or simply removed from their autobiographies and Considine’s book. The action unfolds predictably and without any satisfying resolution. Burge opts for comedy whenever he has the opportunity to move us by providing a deeper insight into these women’s tormented worlds.

Perhaps Scacchi as Davis best sums up the drama in the last ten minutes when she remarks that her co-star has at least given a passably “two- dimensional” performance in Baby Jane. It’s a line that could refer to this play. An enjoyable bitch-fest for Bette and Joan aficionados it is. An informative drama it is not. And that is a shame, because with a little more attention it could have been. 

Bette and Joan plays at the Arts Theatre, London until 25th June

Alex Hopkins, May 2011.