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A CurtainUp 
London Review
London ReviewThe Last of the Duchess
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She kept slim to elevate the lives of people around her. — Maitre Suzanna Blum
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Sheila Hancock as Maitre Blum (Photo: Tristram Kenton) |
Writer Lady Caroline Blackwood (Anna Chancellor) was trying to get the Duchess to agree to being photographed for the Sunday Times by Lord Snowdon, the recently divorced husband of the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret. As Maitre Blum forbade access to the Duchess, who was rumoured to have dementia, it was decided instead to write an article about her fierce protector Maitre Blum. Wright has taken some licence with the historical events by setting the play in the Duchess’s house rather than Blum’s Parisian apartment but it matters little and it is interesting to think that the action is taking place while the Duchess lies abed upstairs.
Lady Caroline Blackwood herself has a fascinating past having eloped to Paris to marry the painter Lucien Freud. Freud’s 1952 portrait of the young girl with the enormous blue eyes is of her. She was later married to the composer Israel Citkowitz and finally to the poet Robert Lowell. Joining Lady Caroline in the waiting room is the Duchess’s friend Lady Diana Mosley (Angela Thorne) great friend of the Duchess, a Mitford girl, sister of writer Nancy, and Unity Mitford who was said to have been Hitler’s lover. Diana who lived in France was the widow of Sir Oswald Mosley leader of the British Fascists. There has long been a rumour that the pre-war plan was for Germany to invade England and restore the throne to King Edward VIII and make Wallis Queen. Maitre Blum is not allowing her old friends to see the Duchess.
Like Caroline Blackwood’s research, and her book after which the play is named, The Last of the Duchess, centres on Maitre Blum and her defence of Wallis, the woman who famously said, "You cannot be too thin or too rich." Blum can be very funny. When she describes the Duke of Windsor as having one of the finest legal minds of his generation, we cannot fail to laugh. Blum’s apologist adulation of the Duchess is not believable as she reinvents history telling us how popular she was with the British people and of the hundreds of fan letters she gets every day! There are also questions as to where some of the Duchess’s jewellery might have been sold and by whom. Michael Bloch (John Heffernan) is a pupil of Maitre Blum and gives us a slightly different picture allowing the playwright to place Caroline in discussion about the Duchess with someone other than the formidable Maitre Blum.
Sheila Hancock is perfect as Blum. She preens for the Snowdon portrait in a long black dress in the pose adopted by the Duchess and is aggressive and fierce in her defence of her ward. Hancock’s French is near perfect and although she is much taller than Maitre Blum, she seems made for the role. I adored too Anna Chancellor’s intelligent writer with a weakness for the demon drink. Blum has taken the Duchess’s vodka away. Chancellor makes Lady Caroline very likeable, a journalist in the finest tradition with integrity. Angela Thorne’s Lady Diana, as one of the Duchess’s friend ousted by Blum is also appealing until she spouts her Fascist political views. These women married to famous men are a personal aspect of twentieth century history and gossip!
Of course Sir Richard Eyre directs with surefootedness and Anthony Ward’s trompe l’oeil set is very French with its rococo gilt framed, silk cushioned chairs and plaster work walls. When Caroline asks Michael who has been upstairs what that floor looks like, he says, "like down here, vulgar and sort of tarnished." I liked this play so much I can see it being successful on transfer to the West End and it left me planning to I read Caroline Blackwood’s biography of Wallis Simpson.
Notes: the material of this play makes for an interesting comparison and contrast with Lena Farugia’s play Untitled set in Paris about Wallis which I saw at the Finborough, go here.
While researching this play, I came across a conspiracy theory that a baby was born to The Duke and Duchess in 1934 called Elizabeth who was secreted away to a family in America and lives in Maryville Tennessee today. Some of the evidence as to her birthright is the use of the number three in letters and jewellery between the Duke and Duchess. This number is taken to allude to a third person but I propose it is nothing other than husband number three for Wallis!
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| The Last of the Duchess
Written by Nicholas Wright Directed by Richard Eyre Starring: Sheila Hancock, Anna Chancellor, Angela Thorne, John Heffernan With: Helen Bradbury, Conrad Asquith, Jasmina Daniel Design: Anthony Ward Lighting: Peter Mumford Sound: John Leonard Running time: Two hours with an interval Box Office: 020 7722 9301 Booking to 26th November 2011 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 27th October 2011 performance at the Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, London NW3 3EU (Tube: Swiss Cottage) |
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