The naked truth about Marlene’s later years

IT’S all about the dress – darling. This is not another Royal wedding we’re talking about (although it is just a matter of time before what Zara Phillips will be wearing for her marriage to rugby ace Mike Tindall in July becomes headline news). No, what we are talking about is the “nude dress” being made for Sarah Parks for her portrayal of Marlene Dietrich in a revival of the late Pam Gems’ play which recounts the screen star’s twilight years.

The heavily-beaded evening gown of silk soufflé, which gave the illusion of transparency was designed by Jean Louis and attracted a lot of publicity when first worn by German-born Dietrich.

When Sian Phillips played the role (specially written for her by Gems who died last month) Phillips said the dress was given more care then she was. It was collected from her dressing room after each performance and locked in a safe until needed again.

“It is an important element of the performance,” said Sarah who stars in Marlene at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

“At this point in her career she was on the wane and the dress invigorates her,” said Sarah.

“Performers derive strength and reassurance from things they trust – a good script, good direction, and it can also be props that they use or a costume that they know is fantastic,” she said.

Of course, the play and the performance is far more than a fancy frock – that is why Sarah has spent weeks researching and watching all things Dietrich. Much younger than the woman she is portraying, Sarah has read books on and watched her subject’s films.

But this is not an impression of Dietrich or her entire life-story – it is a snapshot of a performer in her declining years, when she was touring her cabaret show, living out of a suitcase and surviving on audiences’ adulation and applause. “I was attracted to the project by the script, it is a lovely play. I did not know much about Marlene before I got the part,” said Sarah.

“I was amazed at how much she was captivated by the world and how incredibly enthusiastic she was about everything. I ‘got’ her very quickly and that gave me confidence.

“She was demanding yet generous, a sex goddess who was not really that beautiful – she found somebody who knew about lighting. Neither was she above cleaning floors – she was meticulous about housework. People want to put her in a box, but she doesn’t fit easily into any category.

“She also had moral courage. I was not expecting that. She was incredibly brave during the Second World War. She was unflinchingly anti-Nazi and helped people escape. She was considered a traitor and made enemies in her native Germany to such an extent that it makes you wonder what would have been her fate if she had been captured by the Nazis.”

Sarah has Dietrich’s vocal range, which will be put to good use in numbers including La Vie En Rose, Lili Marlene and Falling In Love Again.

She is too modest to say that she also has the huskiness which made Marlene sound like she soaked her vocal cords in a mixture of cigarettes and whisky. Sarah will also be using that in Carmen which is running in repertory with Marlene. She plays Lily in Chris Monks’s adaptation of Bizet’s opera.

No stranger to Scarborough, Sarah has performed here with Hull Truck and Northern Broadsides – though the last time the actress (who lives near Halifax) was in town, it was January and blowing a gale.

While she enjoys what she hopes will be summer sun, her husband, actor Josh Richards, is in The Taming of the Shrew. He also performs a one-man show about fellow Welshman Richard Burton. “There are three of us in Marlene so I don’t get any sympathy from him about playing this role. He says ‘it’s all right for you, there are two other people sharing the show’,” she said.

* Marlene, directed by Chris Monk, artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, to September 3.