PREVIEW: Bette and Joan at Theatre Royal, Brighton, starts May 28

RENOWNED actresses Anita Dobson and Greta Scacchi are to star in Anton Burge’s new play, Bette and Joan, which visits the Theatre Royal in Brighton for a week-long run starting on Monday (May 28).

Legendary Hollywood divas Bette Davis and Joan Crawford only worked together once, on the gothic horror What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?

However, such was the explosive nature of the film, the stories surrounding the making of it, plus the critical and public reaction that, 50 years later, the picture is now regarded as a cult masterpiece – one that continues to fascinate, not only for what went on in front of the camera, but also behind it.

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Set over the course of a single day, during the Baby Jane shoot, Bette and Joan chronicles the action of what happens to the two actresses as they prepare to face the cameras and, ultimately, each other and what goes on when the cameras stop.

It is a play that deals with celebrity and ego, how Hollywood deals with age and women and shows the two superstars at not only their most courageous but also vulnerable, as they weigh up the battle of what is the greater – art or stardom?

Part monologue, part dialogue, the audience is privy to the women at their most intimate as they dress, make up and discuss their lives, loves and losses, of course, each other.

To book tickets, costing £13 - £27, visit www.atgtickets.com/brighton