It’s the 1980s, and Patricia Meadows, glamorous star of British movies of the Forties and Fifties, has a tell-all memoir which threatens to expose many scandals. But what price will Patricia pay to reclaim her place in show business history? Stephen and Jessica first worked together on Stephen’s Dr Who story, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Their journey continues…
Review by Stephen Gilchrist.
In this jewel of a play by Stephen Wyatt, Jessica Martin gives a performance of such authenticity, subtlety and nuance that you believed that she actually was the fictional Patricia Meadows, the down at heel, once admired, but now mostly forgotten, star of British movies of the 1940s and 1950s who never made it to Hollywood.
For those of us who watch Talking Pictures TV (TPTV), the British free-to-air vintage film and nostalgia television channel, the eponymous title character will be familiar, Patricia Dainton, Belinda Lee and Susan Shaw being just three examples of real-life actors. The title of the play is a film which provided the highlight of the character’s career.
In the 1980s, in which this play is set, Meadows is struggling to find both money, and relevance in her life by hawking around a memoire, torn between authoring an autobiography of some integrity, and providing something rather more salacious. She tells her story largely to an ‘as told to’ presumptive biographer- or rather to an empty chair. She needs attention. In fact, “attention must be paid”- the famous quote from Arthur Miller’s 1949 play, Death of a Salesman in which Linda Loman speaks the line to defend her struggling husband, Willy Loman.
I’ve written previously that Jessica Martin is a force of nature. She is a West End leading lady, an actress, singer, and illustrator. As an impressionist, her television roles have included Spitting Image, Copy Cats and two series with Bobby Davro. In this play, a 75-minute solo performance, she is able to utilise each of her multi talents. She is a master (or is it mistress?) of voices and during the recap of her life she provides spot-on impressions of those better known non-fictional cinema performers whose paths she crossed, including Alfred Hitchcock, Audrey Hepburn, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. She references these and many more, sometimes tenderly, sometimes bitchily but always with a touching longing for those long-lost days. Of her three husbands she is withering of two, her last of whom, an international star, just about keeps her solvent after some implied threats to diss him with an exposé of his sexual proclivities. She survives, just about, an abortion and a prosecution for shoplifting, while reminding us of Lady Isobel Barnet, the 1950s radio and television personality, who killed herself by deliberately ingesting 10 to 12 tablets of distalgesic, in her bath, after a conviction for shoplifting.
This is a beautifully written piece about loneliness, remembrance, memory and a longing for what might have been, the nature of fame and the loss of celebrity. It is delicately written with the text undulating between pathos, humour and drama, and at its centre a portrait of regret and “coulda, woulda, shoulda”. Intermittently, Meadows is given to song (by Wyatt, Martin and Inga Davis-Rutter), reflective and mood shaping which Martin delivers beautifully
Technically, the piece is finely and elegantly directed by Jason Moore within a well-lit (by Marta Fossati) well-dressed set (by Ian Nicholas) representing a living room, a little dowdy, a little dated, but comfortable. Martin appears smartly costumed in both a colourful robe and head wrap and then in a black and white number, both indicative of fashion some decades back.
This show about stardom and reminiscence is an absolute class act in every respect. Performer, Jessica Martin and writer, Stephen Wyatt meld to produce a beautiful show which richly deserves a place in the West End. I loved it. I was touched by it and I look forward to its onward journey.
Cast
- Jessica Martin — Patricia Meadows
Creatives
- Stephen Wyatt — Writer
- Jason Moore — Director
- Ian Nicholas — Set Designer
- Mirror & Mask Productions — Producer
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