A Life in Three Acts

The format of Mark Ravenhill’s latest offering at the Edinburgh Fringe is more of an interview than a play; a three-part series of edited conversations with the performer Bette Bourne. Each part covers a different area of Bourne’s life, and can be seen all together or individually.

Today, the audience hears about the beginnings of Bette Bourne. Ravenhill introduces the performer on stage and Bourne launches into stories from his childhood in Hackney; his schooldays; how he broke away from an apprenticeship to become an actor and his epiphanic experience at the first meetings of the Gay Liberation Front.

Bourne shines as he narrates his story, telling jokes and jumping up occasionally to sing or to look more closely at one of the photographs on the projector behind him. Ravenhill takes an appreciative backseat, interposing occasionally to ask a question or read lines from one of the characters in Bourne’s life.

Unfortunately, with both Bourne and Ravenhill reading from scripts, the obvious theatricality makes certain moments ring false – you wonder to what extent Bourne’s vulnerability at recalling unpleasant moments or Ravenhill’s laughter were plotted out with the lighting.

But Bourne’s story is one of an unquestionably fascinating life, told without embarrassment or regret; his experiences are shot through with a sense of a life lived truthfully and to the full. The next two shows cover his experiences with the GLF, a period in a drag commune and the beginning of his theatre company, Bloolips. See one or see them all – this is a story that deserves to be heard.