A new play by writer Maureen Sherlock stars Amanda Muggleton as the flamboyant Coral Browne who travelled from Australia in the 1930’s to forge a career on the London stage. It opens at the Kings Head Theatre, Islington on May 19.
Leaving Australia as a 21-year old in the 1930’s Coral Browne forged a reputation as a popular West End performer and later a brilliant classical actor. But Coral was notorious for her bawdy wit, her glamour and her liberated attitude to sex.
The Artiscape spoke with Maureen Sherlock about the play. Sherlock has written extensively for television, including Blue Heelers for Southern Star, Chuck Finn and Wormwood for Barron Entertainment, ABC TV’s Flashback, animated series The Odd Family for Timmoon France, Ketchup for Southern Star and Gasp for SLR.
We asked Sherlock what inspired her to write the play; Coral Browne: This F***ing Lady?
Sherlock: I was inspired to find out who Coral Browne was after reading several biographies of actors, like Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, who mentioned her as an influence and mentor or related bawdy anecdotes involving her.
She was an Australian actor, but I had never heard of her. I discovered that she left Australia in the 1930s and forged a career on the West End, as well as with the Old Vic and the National and starred in some major movies including Auntie Mame, The Killing of Sister George and An Englishman Abroad for which she won a BAFTA.
I also discovered that her memorabilia was donated to the Performing Arts Collection in Melbourne by her second husband Vincent Price. And what a treasure trove this turned out to be! Photographs, videos, programs, letters from a who’s who of stage and screen luminaries, from her lovers, from Vincent Price, and from her demanding mother. The more I researched, the more I loved this outrageous, funny, liberated woman who was way ahead of her time.
We asked her if she could relate in any way, to Coral Browne?
Sherlock: I’m not sure that I can relate to Coral but I can certainly admire her fierce determination, her talent and her lust for life that inspired her to climb out of working-class Footscray in Melbourne to scale the heights of the West End stage and even make an impression on Hollywood.
What did Sherlock find challenging about adapting and directing this play?
Sherlock: The play is an original work based on my research at the Coral Browne Collection at the Performing Arts Collection in Melbourne.
The main challenge I had in writing the play was condensing such a well-lived life into a mere seventy minutes of stage time. With so much material to choose from it was difficult to decide what to leave out.
In fact, the play was originally much longer and I had to be brutal, continually asking myself ‘does this serve the story or is it just a fact I find interesting?’ Research is so seductive, but it has to support the narrative not be the main event.
As a director I have been lucky to have an actor of the calibre of Amanda Muggleton who works in such a generous and collaborative way. Having also written the piece I had preconceptions about how it should be staged, but Amanda has challenged me and together we have extended the ambition of the play.
What does Sherlock think an audience will enjoy about this play?
I think audiences will enjoy discovering this flamboyant star of stage and screen. It’s like a Girls Own Adventure but with more swearing! Our plucky heroine leaves Australia with £50 in her pocket, stars in her eyes and driving ambition in her heart.
Her adventures take her from understudy to star of the West End stage, mixing with theatrical royalty, encountering a spy in Moscow, marrying a famous Hollywood star. With her flamboyance, her biting wit, her glamorous lifestyle, her hilarious ‘bon and four letter mots!’ she was a one-off – and that’s something worth celebrating.
Coral Browne: This F***ing Lady runs from the 19th May to 3rd of June at the Kings Head theatre in Islington, London.
