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Editorial
Resident Alien, New End Theatre
From Princess Diana to music, and from relationships to politics, Quentin Crisp had some pretty strong and interesting opinions. In Resident Alien Bette Bourne brings Crisp back to life by offering the New End Theatre’s audience an engaging and insightful glimpse into the life of this eccentric character.
Bourne plays Crisp in the latter years of his life, and his ability to keep his audience interest is clearly tested in Resident Alien, as the entire one-man play takes place in just one room, Crisp’s tatty New York flat. Luckily for us, Bourne passes with flying colours. His enthusiasm contrasts the slow pace at which he delivers each well-constructed story, though you'd have thought he would have it down to a fine art, having been playing Crisp, his friend of 20 years, since 1999.
Bourne shuffles across the stage at a painfully slow pace, addressing the audience with short stories, anecdotes and sometimes just observations and opinions, all of which are not only clever but well delivered and poignant to say the least. And, it must be said, all are usually dripping in cynicism and disdain for the world outside his tiny box flat.
Bourne’s closing remarks about regrets, life and looking forward were gratefully received and savoured by the intimate theatre’s audience. A standing ovation by some was evidence for this.
Special praise of course must go to writer Tim Fountain, who has been so carefully prudent with his pen. In Resident Alien, Fountain won't permit a sentence to be wasted, and although delivered splendidly by Bourne, it is Fountain that gave him the chance.
This has been running for ten years and picked up awards here and in America, and even those with little knowledge on the life and work of Crisp, would take a great deal home from this production.