By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Thursday 5 December 2024, runs through 11 January 2025 RUNTIME: 135 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Heat and Dust, White Mischief, Presumed Innocent and The Player … if you’re wondering whatever happened to Greta Scacchi, the actress who appeared in those films, read on.

• Read on for reasons including how this is serious subject matter given a delightfully funny airing thanks to a formidable duo

Scacchi plays Bette Davis here in 1962 shooting iconic film Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? opposite her nemesis Joan Crawford, given life here by Felicity Dean, as we’re privy to the 2 on-set dressing rooms of actresses once Hollywood royalty who were down-on-their-uppers until this low-budget psychological thriller became a smash.

We’re in the front row of the smaller 90-seater venue at this Finsbury Park venue for a sold-out run of this very funny 2-hander and you should get here early if you want the pick of the seats because they are unallocated and it’s first-come first-served.

This play by Anton Burge was staged at London’s Arts Theatre in 2011 starring Scacchi and Anita Dobson but you may be more familiar with this tale as told by Ryan Murphy for FX and BBC in the UK as Feud starring Susan Sarandon as Davis and Jessica Lange as Crawford which won 2 Emmys in 2017.

Bette & Joan is directed here by Sue Jenkins, who starred as Jackie Corkhill in Channel 4’s soap Brookside, and we do get a real sense of animosity between 2 fellow Oscar winners with different backgrounds, Davis on Broadway and Crawford in film.

But they also recognise they need each other for this 1 last push to sustain their ailing careers with Dean’s Crawford bringing the script to Scacchi’s Davis’ Broadway dressing room and Davis siding with the director to destabilise Crawford who even secretly adds weights to her body here during filming to make a scene where Davis lifts her from her wheelchair more arduous.

Scacchi is the revelation though daubing her face in Jane‘s iconic make up slowly throughout the 1st act while professing not to care how she looks yet checking her face in the imaginary mirror above your reviewer’s head because she’s ever the perfectionist.

Scacchi is an Emmy winner who has been BAFTA nominated and notoriously turned down the Basic Instinct role which made Sharon Stone and has spoken recently about being cast on film for her looks when her real passion was theatre and she has a ball with the foul-mouthed chainsmoker that Davis became renowned for.

This is most certainly a comedy and its clearly attracting an older audience on the evidence of those in attendance here who will be familiar with stars who have 3 Oscars between them (Davis 2, Crawford 1).

But the real story is how Hollywood pitted these women against each other when they challenged the studio system and refused to accept the sell-by date of female stars had to be younger than men’s.

The tragedy of course is that while more than 60 years may have passed since Baby Jane it’s debatable how much the ageism which women are subjected to has declined.

Serious subject matter then given a delightfully funny airing thanks to a formidable duo with Scacchi’s Davis in particular ensuring neither she nor the actress she is portraying will not be forgotten by those present.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Park Theatre Tickets
• Have you seen a Park Theatre show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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