The Thrill of Love, a new and sensitive play by Amanda Whittington, offers a fresh look at the events leading up to Ruth Ellis shooting her lover, David Blakely, at point-blank range on Easter Sunday 1955. Ever immortalised as the last woman to be hanged in Britain, Whittington’s meticulously researched work not only relives the glamour and sordidness of the Fifties nightclub scene in which Ellis worked as a “hostess”, but poses important questions about the British justice system of the time and the decision to make a very public example of the 28-year-old mother of two.
Directed by James Dacre, gunshots sound before we’re taken back to Ellis’s life four years previously; a petite peroxide blonde bombshell, the queen of The Little and Court Clubs, who isn’t getting any younger and whose dreams of being swept off to Hollywood like her friend Diana Dors are slowly fading. Alas, Ellis’s claim to fame was tinged with blood and found her in Holloway instead of Hollywood. Faye Castelow is a revelation as the steely yet vulnerable femme fatale whose life disintegrates when she begins a relationship with the handsome Blakely. Spiralling into a life of drug and alcohol abuse, Ellis chases him relentlessly, against the advice of her friends and despite his violence and infidelities.
With more booze than you could shake a cocktail stick at, a scratchy Billie Holiday soundtrack, Fifties costumes ranging from the glamorous to the prim and a set design including ruched red drapes, chandeliers, and a mirror ball, it’s impossible not to imagine you’re drinking ’til dawn in the heart of London’s West End. The intimate amphitheatre-like seating of the St James Theatre is the perfect venue for the brilliantly choreographed 90 minutes; crammed with countless prop changes and entertaining theatrics, but above all – quality acting from a perfectly cast ensemble.
Maya Wasowicz is superb as Ellis’s ambitious friend and fellow hostess Vicky Martin whose own life is cut tragically short after becoming involved with the Cliveden set. In fact the only women with their heads screwed on are the char lady Doris Judd (Katie West) and madam-come-mother Sylvia Shaw (Hilary Tones), who knocks back raw eggs for breakfast and dishes out advice that’s never heeded.
From hushed-up terminations to unwanted pregnancies, Ellis’s sparkle gradually fades to leave a woman terrified of rejection and determined to self-destruct. “It’s obvious when I shot him, I intended to kill him,” she announces almost boastfully. For a character showing little or no sign of remorse, it’s astonishing that we feel any sympathy for her – and yet you can’t help but pity a woman so poorly treated by the male sex. With a history of ectopic pregnancies and suffering another miscarriage just a couple of days prior to committing the crime, she seals not only her own fate and that of Blakely, but brings an end to their almost barbaric relationship.
The Thrill of Love is a detective story with no doubt as to who pulled the trigger. But who gave her the gun? Was she covering up for another lover? Or was this simply the action of a woman not in her right mind? At least that’s what the only male member of the cast, the fictitious Inspector Jack Gale (Robert Gwilym) tries to prove, but nothing can save Mrs Ellis from the gallows and Mr Pierrepoint’s noose now.
The Thrill of Love at the St James Theatre, 12 Palace Street, London, SW1E 5JA, until 4th May 2013. Performance time approximately 90 minutes with no interval. For more information and tickets visit the website.
