“For f**k sake, don’t be boring.”
Joan Littlewood’s pre-show advice to her revolutionary ensemble at Theatre Royal Stratford East. And a fitting description of Yootha Joyce’s turbulent life and career, which in the early days comprised a conveyor belt of “slags and tarts” before she landed the lead in Jean-Paul Sartre’s ironically entitled The Reluctant Prostitute.
Though boring is not an accusation which can be levelled at Caroline Burns Cooke who’s self-penned show and spirited performance under the direction of Mark Farrelly offers a rare insight into the woman behind the mask.
Politics, it is said, is show business for ugly people. And careers in such field are more often than nought doomed to end in failure because, as Enoch Powell noted, “that is the nature of politics and human affairs.” Two schools of thought which could easily apply to Yootha – Aboriginal for “thirsty, which is apt given her fondness for brandy.
Initially unhappy with, but later fiercely proud of, her jolie laide (ugly/beautiful) looks, Yootha’s star burned brightest in the long-running sitcom George and Mildred in which she and her co-star Brian Murphy “provided a bit of glamour towards the arse end of the 70’s” with a masterclass in comic bickering.
But the pressures of fame, together with fears of being typecast and career frustrations, eventually took their toll and snapped her increasingly highly-strung nerves, leading to her sudden death of liver failure four days after her 53rd birthday. A tragic life, indeed. But as the advertising blurb records: “Could have been worse. Could have been a wet Wednesday at Rhyl Rep.”
Caroline Burns Cooke is at her strongest when plumbing the depths of Yootha’s soul. One straight-to-camera monologue from the Anne Bancroft vehicle The Pumpkin Eater – described by Harold Pinter as the best cameo he had ever seen – particularly memorable. Though with a flick of the wrist and a bat of her eyelids, she quickly turns tragedy into comedy with the delivery of a neat one-liner.
“It’s all in the game and the way you play it,” confides Yootha. And the manner of Cooke’s playing which includes a conveyor belt of colourful characters such as the “cow” Joan Littelwood and her “lovely but not exactly Brando husband” Glynn Edwards is a jolt of joy in these Brexit-bedraggled days. And as far from boring as Rhyl is from the Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh where the show runs until 26 August.