Keeler – Churchill Theatre, Bromley

Writer: Gill Adams

Director: Paul Nicholas

Reviewer: Lauren Rare

The Public Reviews Rating:

The Profumo affair in the early 1960s had all the ingredients for an explosive news story: sex, intrigue, politics and spies. This play detailing the story from Christine Keeler’s perspective is no different; it has it all, in spadefuls.

The play opens and finishes in the same way, with the iconic Arne Jacobsen chair illuminated on the stage as the audience are invited to consider the story behind the coy smile of the glamorous naked brunette sitting astride it.

Christine Keeler (Alice Coulthard) is portrayed as a vulnerable young girl who is groomed and controlled by the predatory Stephen Ward (Paul Nicholas). Their peculiar relationship is revealed to be increasingly sinister and at one point, it appears that he has deliberately allowed Lucky Gordon (Chucky Venn), a dangerous man with an obsessive interest in Keeler, to rape her. Paul Nicholas carries off the seedy and manipulative character of Stephen Ward with great precision and attention to detail. His controlling behaviour, calculating threats and callous disregard of Keeler are demonstrated subtly but with tremendous effect. Keeler’s descent into desperation as the fall-out of her brief affair with Profumo catapults her unwittingly into the public eye is well observed by Alice Coulthard.

Sex was a large part of the Profumo affair and this play embraces it fully. Alice Coulthard exudes sexuality but interweaves it with a fragility that is not always associated with Keeler. There are several erotic scenes of showgirls dancing in formation, wearing little more than nipple tassels. However, rather than just gratuitous nudity, it enhances the piece as the dances often echo the action on the stage and bring an extra dimension to the underlying thoughts and feelings of the characters as the story unravels.

Music, contemporaneous with the time, is cleverly interspersed throughout the play creating a soundscape that mimics the events which are being portrayed, like ‘Take Good Care of My Baby’ which is ironically played as Keeler desperately seeks an abortion for the child which has been conceived with Profumo.

The set design is ingeniously simple with each part being used for a number of purposes to great visual effect. I was particularly impressed by the sliding central screens which allows an upper section of the stage to be used and also creates an opaque screen onto which images are projected. This is used to show newspaper articles and pictures from the era to put the story into context with other world events. The screen also doubles up as a translucent window behind which the shadows of the actors can be seen. Their silhouettes, especially during a violent stabbing scene, appear even more frightening when they are presented in this manner.

One may feel that the facts of the events between July 1961 and December 1963 are so well known that a play based on them may be a straightforward historical recount, but this production presents the events in an extremely vibrant and powerful way which grips the audience and causes them to reassess the story in the light of this different perspective. This is a hugely enjoyable piece of theatre and I would thoroughly recommend it.