22 February 2020
The Thrill of Love, by award winning playwright Amanda Whittington, sheds new light on the life of Ruth Ellis, who was hanged for shooting her lover in 1955. Using the language of film noir and the distinctive voice of Billie Holiday, Whittington creates a haunting and beautiful piece of theatre which, despite the inevitable outcome, maintains dramatic tension to the last.
Holly Squires was wonderful as Ruth Ellis
A divorcee with a young child to care for, Ruth Ellis works in the kind of nightclubs where there’s more than just a drink on offer. The girls work hard, play hard and dream of a movie-star lifestyle. Then she meets the wealthy, womanising David, a racing driver with whom she becomes obsessed. Fame comes – but not in the way she imagines. Why does their relationship end in murder? Why does she plead not guilty, but offer no defence? Why does she show no remorse? And who is she trying to protect?
An elegant set, perfect costume and a super cool soundtrack made for a very stylish and gripping eve of live Theatre.
On a positive note: Within two years of Ellis’s death, and on the back of massive public outcry. The Homicide Act 1957 limited the death penalty by restricting it to certain types of murder. It was a rather compromised piece of legislation but it set the tone for what was to follow in 1965, when Harold Wilson’s Labour government passed the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act. The last hangings in Great Britain had taken place a year earlier. Such changes are not brought about by one person’s case. But, for all that, Ruth Ellis remains a highly significant figure – both in shining a light on the long road to abolition and reflecting capital punishment’s impact on Britons’ emotional lives in the 1950s.
10 out of 10
