Grey Gardens

The 1975 film documentary, Grey Gardens, has acquired something of a cult status. It revealed, in often wince-making detail, the extraordinary lives of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie, Jackie Kennedy’s aunt and cousin respectively, who lived in raccoon-infested squalor in their 28-room Long Island mansion.

There was a horrible fascination in watching these two increasingly eccentric women locked in a mutually loving, self-destructive relationship, not to mention a smug satisfaction in realising that no amount of wealth or privilege can insulate anyone from a life of delusion and disappointment.

Now the film has been turned into a musical and it works surprisingly well. To fill an evening, though, you need more than a reproduction of what we saw in the documentary and so the first half gives us an account of mother and daughter in 1941 when Edie was something of a bathing beauty and her mother had pretensions to a career as an interpreter of the Great American Songbook.

What quickly becomes clear under Thom Sutherland’s artful direction is that mum isn’t going to allow daughter to leave home. Ever. Her two sons have long since flown the nest and Edith makes it her business to see off young Joe Kennedy (Aaron Sidwell), leaving Edie (Rachel Anne Rayham) with little more than a pocketful of dreams.

The convincingly cluttered and ramshackle stage is then set for a second act that faithfully replicates the 1975 documentary, replete with some of Edie’s more elliptical bon mots. Example: ‘It’s very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present. You know what I mean?’

The success of the venture falls squarely on the shoulders of the two actresses cast as elder mother and daughter. So three cheers for Sheila Hancock and Jenna Russell, a superb double act who navigate the territory between love, laughter and a series of heartbreaking emotional skirmishes with consummate skill.

Ms Hancock, 83 next month and resplendent in white flowing wig, comes into her own in Act II , her swooping, actressy speech pattern at odds with her physical frailty. But it’s Ms Russell’s night. She can sing. She’s laugh-out-loud funny. And she’s clearly someone who’s watched the filmed source material many times. She’s Edie to the life, complete with odd sartorial choices and a wobbly grip on reality. An unusual, sometimes uncomfortable evening but well worth catching during its brief run.

Until 6 February at Southwark Playhouse, 77-85 Newington Causeway, London SE1: 020-7407 0234, www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk