Bette And Joan
Claws are discreetly sheathed when silver screen icons Bette Davis and Joan
Crawford come face to face in Anton Burge’s mildly entertaining two-hander, Bette And Joan.
Behind the scenes in their mirror-image dressing rooms, though, it’s no
holds barred bitching during filming of their 1962 comeback movie “Whatever
Happened to Baby Jane?”
Anita Dobson’s discreetly smirking, soignée Crawford (her animosity wrapped
in modulated tones and cultivated manners) contrasts strongly with Greta
Scacchi’s clumping Davis, the former working overtime to preserve her star
image, the latter an actress to her fingertips who isn’t afraid to look the
part, no matter how monstrous.
Burge doesn’t probe very deeply in Bette And Joan – biographical details are tantalisingly
scant, the interaction between the two limited – but a fair scattering of
witty one-liners and malicious observations are delivered with commendable
relish.
3/5
Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street, WC2H 7JB
020 7907 7092
Tube: Leicester Square
Until June 25
£20-£34.50
– Louise Kingsley
