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Great story deserves better telling
That picture: Alice Coulthard in the iconic Christine Keeler pose, Lewis Morley's celebrated picture of the naked showgirl straddling an Arne Jacobsen chair from 1963, a picture which became of symbol of both the 1960s and the Profumo affair. Keeler Malvern Festival Theatre *** A MIX OF SEX,
politics and spies, Keeler
is based on the best selling book The
Truth At Last by Christine Keeler and
Douglas Thompson and tells the sensational story of one of the defining
moments of the 20th century. In 1961, a naive 19-year old show girl was at the
heart of a scandal which rocked the Conservative government. Christine Keeler was introduced to the upper
echelons of society by the osteopath Stephen Ward at Lord Astor's
country estate; she went on to have affairs with John Profumo, then
Secretary of State for War and, at the same time, Yevgeni Ivanov, a
Soviet naval attaché. The tangled web ended in Keeler's imprisonment,
Ward's suicide and Profumo's resignation, and heralded the beginning of
the end for Harold Macmillan's government The play, written by Gill Adams with Christine
Keeler's sanction, reveals the inside story of the biggest political sex
scandal to rock the British nation last century, but fails to add any
richness to a story that shocked the nation and is really a re-hash of a
sequence of events but with some strange directional choices and
mediocre dialogue. The show opens with sizzling showgirls who are
the allure to Ward and his world of influential friends. Scenes are effectively carried out amidst a back
drop of defining images and unfolding political events of the swinging
sixties. However, although there is a mingle of
miniskirts, dinner parties, drugs, sex and alcohol, Keeler seems
to lack the ambience that was emerging post the Cold War during this
period. The set is minimal and a little bland; with only
a vague attempt to create an atmosphere as dancing girls intervene each
scene with staged choreography, scantily clad wearing not much more than
a few feathers and delicately placed tassels.
The red Speedos sported by the Russian attaché
played by Andrew Grose left little to the imagination and were paraded
on stage for what felt like an uncomfortable length of time. There is
even some full frontal nudity but of the gratuitous kind. Paul Nicholas directs and produces Keeler,
and does redeem himself somewhat by playing a wonderfully charming and
laid back Ward (despite his rather ridiculous bouffant wig), the pivotal
character around which all the other characters revolve. Alice Coulthard, best known for her wild child
role in Emmerdale, does a good job in portraying the promiscuous Keeler,
whilst also showing her vulnerability. But at times there is a lack of
emotion between the two main characters. There is some irony in the fact that Keeler
herself has been closely involved in the production, clearly seeking
some sort of sanction and possible self preservation but instead, the
play leaves us with the notion that as a mere muse of Ward she did
actually commit a criminal offence by perjuring herself even though a
victim of exploitation in a seedy world of powerful men. The court scene in which Profumo, played with
suitable pomp and ceremony by Andrew Piper, confesses and resigns flowed
well, but only alluded to the excitement that was building up around the
country as the scandal unfolded. For those blissfully young enough not to remember
the Profumo affair, this play at best can be educational but so much
more could have been made of the beginning of the invasive tabloids or
the political ramifications of this saga as it dictated the future of
events for the Conservative party from 1963. For those that do remember, it is a conspicuous
comparison to today's news where political sex scandals are less
alarming as attitudes have changed and we can no longer believe the
assumption that those in power are trustworthy. This isn't a complete disaster, but Keeler
is a great story to tell and one cannot help feeling there is a missed
opportunity here. Johanna
Brand
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