Mrs Patrick Campbell appeared at York Theatre Royal in the twilight of her career, alongside Sarah Bernhardt in a touring revival of the Maeterlinck play they made their own. "Mrs Campbell played Melisande, Madame Bernhardt Pelleas," one critic wrote at the time. "They are both old enough to know better."
Yet Mrs Campbell, born Beatrice Stella Tanner in 1865, made a career out of being old enough to know better. Having appalled her middle-class parents with her decision to go on the stage, she captivated George Bernard Shaw, who conceived the role of the cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle especially for her. He was prepared to overlook the fact that she was actually 49.
With her superstar status assured, Hollywood beckoned: yet as Pam Gems's biographical play suggests, it was possibly the invention of the close-up that finally did for Mrs Campbell. A diminished life on the lecture circuit, and impecunious exile in France, became a sad diminuendo to a glittering career.
Isla Blair delivers a commandingly garrulous performance as the acid-tongued actress, yet despite the play's length, there's still a sense that Gems is at times merely skimming the surface. The second Mr Campbell is fleshed out in barely a handful of lines; the first says nothing at all. There are confusing references to children we never see. And the precariousness of her situation is elucidated by throwing a handful of papers in the air and declaring "Debts! Debts! Debts! Sarah!", at which point Bernhardt enters and solvency is restored.
Yet the most incongruous aspect of Sue Dunderdale's production is an ever-present Pekinese who never moves. "At least I'll always have you," Blair declares fondly to this fluffy companion, who must have lived an extraordinarily long time unless his mistress had him stuffed.
· Until April 1. Box office: 01904 623568.
