Wallis: A Certain Person – Upstairs at the Gatehouse

Emma Odell and Tom Slatter in Wallis: A Certain Person at Upstairs at the Gatehouse, London. Picture: Mitzi de Margary

Wallis: A Certain Person continues at Upstairs at the Gatehouse, London until 26 June.

Rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Jennifer Selway’s fictionalised account of the troubled relationship between Wallis Simpson and the Prince of Wales counterpoints it against the friendship between a gay valet and a perky maid who often function as commentators.

Robert Hazle is outstanding as the valet, camply self deprecating and insightfully intelligent about everything the upper classes are doing. He is also one of the finest actor musos I have ever seen, performing Simon Slater’s rippling, rapier-sharp songs with incisive warmth from behind a piano on an upstage mini platform.

Since this is a play with music rather than musical theatre, these tacked on numbers are the totality of the music in what is otherwise a straight play. Good as they are, they feel like a welcome bonus rather than an integral part of the action. Katie Arnstein gives a fine performance as Pearl, the maid who becomes a – sort of – partner to Hazle’s character. They work well together and create a real sense of affection.

Emma Odell, dark and slender, finds plenty of depth in Wallis’ character. Yes, she’s manipulative, imperious, demanding, needy, simpering, seductive and as capricious as Cleopatra. On the other hand, she’s no mere gold-digger and we feel at the end that she is trapped where she doesn’t really want to be.

Grant McConvey as David – the Prince of Wales – looks oddly like Prince William and has enough royal bearing to be convincing. In Act II he throws himself at her feet like a dog, shouts at Baldwin (Bernard O’Sullivan – good) and, somehow, eventually retrieves a little dignity.

The supporting cast is strong with lovely cameo work from Eliza McClelland first as the drunken, drug-crazed Lady Cunard, and then as the feisty, sensible Mrs Baldwin. Alice Pitt-Carter delights as Thelma Furness, whether she’s flirting, gossiping or miffed.

Full marks too to Emily Bestow for her neat set. The playing space at Upstairs at the Gatehouse is quite spaciously transverse with the audience to one side. She uses every inch of it and includes a hinged table, a sofa which is slid in and out of a cupboard, and a flat which pivots to offer two different scenes. The rest of the stage is furnished with, for example, bookcases and desks, so that we move quickly from the Simpsons’ house to 10 Downing Street and the home of the valet and maid.

It’s an enjoyable, thoughtful, wittily scripted piece of theatre, devised and directed by John Plews. Catch it if you can.

Susan Elkin

www.upstairsatthegatehouse.com