Theatre review: Good Grief, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

By JOYCE MCMILLAN
Published on 03/10/2012 02:45

WIDOWHOOD is a big subject, and an unglamorous one. It therefore speaks volumes for the star-power of the great Penelope Keith that in Keith Waterhouse’s Good Grief, she takes on a play about this very theme, and fills big theatres across the land with audiences willing to take on the subject, if only they can share it with a performer they so enjoy.

Good Grief

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

Star rating: * * * *

Admittedly, Waterhouse’s witty and thoughtful script puts his play a cut above the usual cliches of bereavement drama. Keith plays June, the childless second wife of a Fleet Street editor who dumped his first family for her; all the play’s revelations involve the detail of that moment, and its chilling impact on June’s fragile stepdaughter Pauline, now a brittle woman of 30. At first, June talks a lot to her dead husband, in a kind of monologue diary; later she stops, because she is so angry. And meanwhile, June is used, abused, taken for granted and disrespected as only an elderly single woman can be; although given a steady supply of vodka and a sharp sense of humour, this hardly seems to surprise her.

But it’s Keith’s terrific performance as June that lights up the show. She has been a much-admired actress for many decades now. Yet I was left wondering whether she has ever given a stronger performance than she does here, in her comic but heartfelt portrait of this unpretentious woman, coming to terms with the fact that now her husband is gone, no-one really gives a damn about her; and that quite possibly, he too gave much less of a damn than she imagined, not only about her, but about everyone.