Boozy biography of Hollywood Star hits Riverside Studios
Elizabeth McGovern with Anatol Yusef. Picture: Marc Brenner
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Some theatre productions just make you crave a drink at the interval. Well, there is no half time during the production of “The Secret Conversations” at the Riverside Studios; but I can tell you that you’ll be positively parched by the time this boozy biography of the Hollywood star Ava Gardner is over.
And you’ll either be after a drink either because you were entranced by this spectacle of Hollywood excessiveness or just because it really is rather long!
The play is a classic two-hander, starring and written by Elizabeth McGovern (and based on the book by Peter Evans and Ava Gardener). It sees the Downton Abbey star play the volatile, psychotic and drunken super star Ava Gardiner. She is SO NOT the wise and charming Lady Cora of Downton, so for fans of the hit TV show: you have been warned!
Ava Gardener was born in the USA in 1922 and died in Westminster, London in 1990. She was the epitome of a Golden Globe Hollywood star. Up there with the biggest stars for example Deborah Kerr, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, etcetera - including Joan Collins (1933).
The play is set between Ava and Peter French (Anatol Yusef) and is spiked with booze and smoked with fags. They crackle with lurid tales ‘telling’ details of Ava’s passionate and tumultuous marriages to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and, YES, Ol’Blue Eyes himself, the one and only Frank Sinatra.
Peter, a journalist, persists in repeatedly probing Ava for specific details about Sinatra’s, reputedly large, physical asset! Ava coquettishly resists ‘telling’. The pair spar furiously and become besotted with each other. The original story grows into a steamy bed of ‘olde worlde’ Hollywood hot-hot-gossip.
Gaby Deital, Director, has lifted a two hander play into new realms using the innovative design team from 59 Productions. The exceptionally imaginative set appears to be a series of sliding panels and screens. The latter are for the appropriate vintage videos that add insight and variety to the, at times, too sprawling drunken conversations.
Anatol Yusef convincingly plays Peter French as well as seamlessly morphing into Mickey Rooney and re-incarnating himself as Frank Sinatra - plus hat and voice. His long and sustained stage career is reflected in this fine performance.
Throughout her career McGovern has performed globally and has won numerous awards for her acting, including an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination for her role in ‘Ragtime’, her second feature film, following her debut in Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People”.
The script can be fiercely funny in places but can, also, be heavy going - perhaps an edit would have kept it on track and in reality it felt like a ‘Marmite’ production in that you’ll either love it or.... you know what. And all the boozing on stage does create a thirst, it was just a pity no interval was included to help keep the thirst at bay!
Susan Stanley-Carroll
“The Secret Conversations” is on at the Riverside Studio Theatre until 16th April.
www.riversidestudios.co.uk and 020 8237 1010
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February 4, 2022
