Celebrity gossip is more bankable today than it ever was, so it is interesting to see a new play about one of the most glamourous actresses of the 20th Century, Audrey Hepburn, especially as it touches on how role models can affect their fans.
Told as two separate stories, Breakfast at Audrey’s looks at the personal life of Hepburn and how the screen beauty’s image affected women around the globe and how that influence can still be present today. On one hand we have the initially unconfident starlet rising under the tutelage of her overbearing mother and on the other we have a current day mother trying to cope with her daughter’s growing obsession with her self-image.
At times funny, Breakfast at Audrey’s is largely a sad play, as it looks at the pressures put on Hepburn to remain svelte and gorgeous and at the decline of a teenage girl through her desire to be thinner. The overall idea and delivery of this piece are good but there is something missing in the link between the two vignettes that just rankles.
Obviously, it is easy to extrapolate a link between celebrity beauty and teenage anorexia but it is unclear why her obsession is focused on Hepburn, as there are dozens of other recent role models who would seem more attractive to a Glaswegian teen.
This isn’t the only niggle, as the relationship between the modern day mother and her daughter just doesn’t gel right and seems slightly unbelievable. This is actually quite strange, as the actresses work well in their Hepburn roles, so it can only be assumed that the fault lies in the script. Admittedly, it’s not a huge discrepancy but the feel of a mother dealing with her daughter’s self-destruction just isn’t there.
Overall, Breakfast at Audrey’s is good and enjoyable. Both actresses do superb jobs in their dual roles but there’s a little spark missing that could lift this work from being just good to great.
3/5
Richard Biggs
