REVIEW: BERYL COOK A Private View by Kara Wilson at The Finborough Theatre 1 - 26 Ocober 2024

Photography: Tara Marricdale

An affectionate portrait of the artist ★★★

Everyone knows a Beryl Cook when they see one. Her brightly coloured paintings of brash, larger than life characters with fleshy thighs and chubby fingers “like chips...or bananas” made her one of Britain’s most popular painters. Her work has more in common with seaside postcards than anything high brow and encapsulates a distinctly British humour with its twin obsessions of class and sex. Whether her observations were from real life on Plymouth’s Hoe or fantasy scenarios hatched in Cook’s mischievous imagination, her characters were always lovingly depicted with humour and affection, never a patronising sneer; she laughed with her characters not at them. Dismissed or reviled by the art establishment, Nicolas Serota, one time director of the Tate, pompously declared “There will be no Beryl Cook in Tate Modern.”

Like a theatrical, Stars in their Eyes, Kara Wilson transforms into the artist Beryl Cook at her latest Finborough Show. Since 1997, Wilson’s performance pieces have all focussed on female artists including Bessie McNichol, Tamara De Lempicka and Vanessa Bell. Here, she inhabits the body, world and artistry of Beryl Cook, an obsessively private woman who couldn’t even go to Buckingham Palace to accept her OBE from the Queen but had to have a personal arrangement with a Plymouth “sheriff”. She had a happy childhood but was cripplingly shy, something that made her brief time as a shop girl and chorus singer agony. As an artist, Cook rarely gave interviews, “I have nothing to say..I have no story or scandal” and preferred to stay in her room, painting, painting, painting, something she discovered by accident in middle age and that gave both her and her fans enormous joy.

In this hour-long performance with no interval, Wilson manages to encapsulate Cook’s entire life. In owl-like spectacles in a white wig and dressed in her requisite black and white – all the colourful clothes were reserved for Cook’s characters – she addresses the audience directly. The show is set up as one long self-tape for the BBC who have invited her to talk about her work and life. She sits in her studio throughout, painting a real canvas that depicts a stripogram called Ivor Dickie surrounded by cackling ladies, their blue eyeshadow echoed by his budgie blue thong. The wonderful set designed by Juliette Demoulin, the Finborough’s Resident Assistant Designer is as witty, quirky, and random as the paintings themselves. A genuine Cook painting is in the studio surrounded by many scattered motifs and inspirations that Cook aficionados will recognise: a pair of feather trimmed latex gloves, a mumsy pair of patent heels, a dummy’s leg clad in tiger print leggings.

Wilson, an obvious fan girl, gives a warm and endearing monologue that brings to life a character who throughout her life remained a public enigma. Based on interviews with Cook’s son, John and information gleaned from her obituaries in 2008 when Cook died at 81, the information, facts and anecdotes are disclosed fairly chronologically. The arc is a gentle one; an untrained, self-taught artist finds success. There are few obstacles and minimal conflict, usually dealt with by constructing a ‘revenge’ painting on the perpetrators, painting them in the nude or in the case of a snarky critic, in women’s underwear. One of the USPs of the show is that we see a painting being painted in real time. The downside of this is that the performer often has her back to the audience and the entire show is very static. The commentary we hear has no great highs or lows, it is even, and everything is generally quite fine and fun and joyous in the world of Beryl Cook.

There are some low-key revelations. The reason all of Cook’s paintings are so full of such large characters that burst from the canvas are because she couldn’t bear to paint backgrounds, so the flesh spread to fill the space. The contrast between the paintings and persona is striking. She is a well-spoken, well-to-do, middle-class lady, a visual chronicler of human life who preferred to sink into the background of the wildest pubs and silently observe or quietly sketch. “I come alive in my characters. They’re not afraid to make fools of themselves”. We never get to the bottom of why she was drawn to her subjects, but it’s clear that through her painting she found a way to articulate the mysteries and miracles of human life, love, and desire. She often says… “I don’t know what it is about me” or “I didn’t really know what I thought about that.” She declined therapy which might have led to a more reflective self-enlightenment so we will never know, and the audience is likely to leave with more questions than answers. This quiet and understated piece is most notable for its contrast to the vivid paintings full of personality. This show provides a charming encounter for Beryl Cook fans although lovers of pure drama might be left a little wanting.

 Box Office https://finboroughtheatre.co.uk/production/beryl-cook-a-private-view/

Set Designer

Juliette Demoulin

Lighting Designer

Venus Raven

Sound Designer

Edward Lewis

Stage Manager

Ted Walliker

Producer

Kit Thompson

Cast

Kara Wilson