Keeler
By Gill Adams
Directed by Paul Nicholas
Richmond Theatre 19th – 24th September 2011
This was the earliest scandal I can remember reading about in the News of the World, Profumo, the very name seemed to seep seedy sexual scandal. As a scandal it had everything, sex, Russian spies, military secrets, atom bombs, nightclubs, self professed doctors practicing sham medicine to the upper classes, mucky pictures and a suicide to boot. They were the glory days for the tabloids and the News of the World, the Sunday People and the Sunday Mirror made hay as the austerity of the fifties made way for the swinging sixties. When you look back in the history books the things that made the sixties swing were, the Beatles, mini skirts, the world cup the great train robbery and the iconic pictures, BridegoRailway Bridge, Myra Hindleyand Christine Keeler on a chair.
Paul Nicholas gives us a wonderfully laid back character of ‘Stephen Ward’ as he observes the rather tawdry nature of the Establishment, however, the rest of the play lacked the essential energy needed for such a scandal. The play is essentially a commentary from Christine Keeler (Alice Coulthard) as she makes her way in life from inept nightclub dancer to a courtesan servicing the government minister, Jack Profumo (Andrew Piper) and the Russian spy, Eugene Ivanov (Andrew Grose). The play lacks the sleaziness of the whole affair and seems to get lost in the vastness of the stage. While I would have expected Stephen Ward to be almost in slow motion as he observes these events, the events themselves I would have expected to be at breakneck speed. Nether the less the play is very interesting and has many moments of merit. I did like the interjection of the sleazy nightclub scenes into the scene change-overs and the choice of music was excellent and as a piece of social history it was very accurate with the depiction of what like was like in London at that time.
Life treated the three main characters in this affair very differently. Whereas Lord Astor seemed to escape with very little mud attached to him, Jack Profumo’s life was crumpled up and discarded by the Establishment. He had been a war hero, a brigadier and had taken part at the Normandy landings before he entered politics. He had risen to be the war minister at the time of the affair. His disgrace may well have led to the fall of the conservative government; it was certainly instrumental in Harold MacMillan resignation as prime minister. Afterwards he volunteered to clean toilets at the Toynbee Hall in East London. He was later to use his influence to raise money for the charity and eventually was awarded a CBE. One might say that his life became more profitable to society after this shaming.
Christine Keeler was herself imprisoned for perjury and then afterwards continued her life doing a variety of jobs as diverse as phone sales and a school dinner lady. She has never lost her infamy and apart from that photo she has also written several books about the affair, each of them earning money; this play is based upon ‘The Truth at Last’. Her fifteen minutes of fame does seem to have gone on for a long time.
Stephen Ward is the person I personally feel saddest about. What ever his motives were in introducing Christine to various friends he ended his life while awaiting the jury verdict on charges of living off immoral earnings. Whatever the sentence was it would not have been the death sentence.
Reviewed by Evan Rule
