Much like the Hollywood star herself, Ava: The Secret Conversations is a visually striking and enigmatic affair. It’s written by and stars Elizabeth McGovern and is based on Peter Evans’s biography, which Ava Gardner collaborated on, but wouldn’t allow to be published in her lifetime. McGovern is best known for her starring role in Downton Abbey but it’s her experience as a lyricist that tells in a production that feels more like an album than a play; poetic and playful and rippling with elegant riffs on Ava’s life and the men who framed it.
Director Gaby Dellal has worked largely in film and, alongside projection specialists 59 Productions, has created a show that splices film and theatre together with finesse. The play unfolds in Ava’s London flat, where Peter and Ava meet to discuss her life. As the two hit upon important moments and men (including Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra), the flat’s walls slide, shuffle or drop away completely, and projected film reels and atmospheric backdrops transport us to a flurry of memorable times and places, many of which shimmer with a mysterious (sometimes threatening) sort of glamour.
