KEELER To 18 March.
London.
KEELER
by Gill Adams.
Upstairs at the Gatehouse Highgate Village N6 4BD To 18 March 2007.
Tue-Sat 8pm Sun 4pm.
Runs 2hrs 10 mins One interval.
TICKETS: 0208 340 3488.
www.upstairsatthe gatehouse.com
Review: Geoff Ambler 15 February 2007.
More scandal, less music and a new point of view.
The scandal involving call-girl Christine Keeler’s simultaneous relationships with a British government minister and Russian diplomat may be over forty years old but it is still interesting and there’s enough new perspective here. This production, based on Christine Keeler’s autobiography, is heavily slanted towards interpreting events from her perspective; sometimes the bias is uncomfortably obvious.
Dr Stephen Ward, operator of the high-class vice-ring involving Keeler, is played by Brian Cowan as devious, a sleazy, controlling influence in Keeler’s life, masking his plots with apparent friendship. Their relationship is more chess player and pawn than the affectionate friends implied in previous retellings. Ward is also a Russian spy. Cowan gets to grips adroitly with this complicated, largely unknown quantity, the only character explored in sufficient depth.
Alice Coulthard still has to fully get under the skin of the confident yet naïve escort, enjoying youthful hedonistic excesses. She seemed uncomfortable in many early scenes, though she improved noticeably through the evening. Her nudity however feels unnaturally contrived, giving no significant narrative benefit.
Stacey Cadman is a delight; though underutilised, beyond partnering Laurie Hagen as another barely clothed dancer, she garners the biggest laughs as straight-talking, bubbly Mandy Rice-Davies.
Johnnie Lyne-Pirkis’s government minister Profumo doesn’t get much opportunity to reveal his character or motivations beyond meeting a naked Keeler then having a very brief affair. The one significant item he delivers, beside sex on the sofa, is the contempt of his “friend” Ward after spilling red wine, a prelude to the desertion Ward experiences when events are picked up by the press. No-one attended his funeral. Was he really so culpable? According to this account, yes.
In the second half Keeler has too many too brief scenes adding little beyond showing what a victim she thought she was. Keeler still feels like work in progress, raw and a little rough around the edges (particularly the edges of sliding door-panels that refused to slide, distracting the audience and breaking a series of almost staccato scenes). It will be interesting to see what directors Paul Nicholas and Alexander Holt finally package as the completed product.
Christine Keeler: Alice Coulthard.
Doris/ Lady P/Ruby: Laurie Hagen.
Mandy Rice-Davies: Stacey Cadman.
Stephen Ward: Brian Cowan.
John Profumo/Lord Tash: Jonnie Lynne-Pirkis.
Bill Astor: Martin Bendel.
Eugene Ivanov: Patrick Ross.
Lucky Gordon/Johnnie Edgecombe: Ewan David Alman.
Directors: Paul Nicholas, Alexander Holt.
Designer: Michael Ozouf.
Lighting: Joseph Capes.
Choreographer: Chris Hocking.
Costume: Stewart Charlesworth.
2007-02-21 00:06:10