Showing in a single performance at this year’s Camden Fringe, The King of Hollywood imagines Douglas Fairbanks Sr, famed silent swashbuckler, in purgatory waiting for someone from his past to join him and show he was loved.
The visitor isn’t immediately named, but the clues are scattered throughout this literate and affectionate play, written and directed by Paul Stone. He clearly knows his stuff, touching on matters and events from Fairbanks’s life and work from his childhood to his sudden death in 1939.
Gerardo Cabal, a Mexican actor, portrays Fairbanks with great flair and enthusiasm, capturing both his look and charisma. He doesn’t really attempt the actor’s American accent, but makes a decent stab of portraying the regret, ego, and bitterness of a forgotten matinee idol.
Simon Lawrence, an English jazz singer and actor, portrays many characters from the life of Fairbanks, often in an exaggerated physical comedy style. He rarely speaks but his reactions serve as a useful foil to Cabal’s dynamic storytelling.
Douglas Fairbanks Sr was probably the first major screen superstar, instantly recognisable all over the world, and married – the second time of three – to America’s Sweetheart, Mary Pickford. Their Hollywood home, known as Pickfair, was a major social hub of the 1920s.
Set in one place, a table at the Palace Theatre, Walthamstow, 38 years after Douglas Fairbanks Sr’s death, The King of Hollywood nevertheless pulls us into a range of settings. We see Mary almost being dragged from her car by adoring European fans; watch as Fairbanks plans his own stunts in Robin Hood; and see the moment of his demise.
It’s all very deferential to the memory of Fairbanks, who acknowledges his failings and recounts his triumphs. It lacks a depth that could come from a deeper dive into this man’s life, but acts as a good starting point.
Without Fairbanks and his screen work, we wouldn’t have action franchises or superheroes. Even his son, Fairbanks Jr, emulated his father’s image in Sinbad the Sailor (1947l, years after marrying his own Hollywood Queen, the young flapper Joan Crawford.
The King of Hollywood is an affectionate play that not only foregrounds Fairbanks, but his friend the little British comedian who made people laugh with just a couple of bread rolls.
I’m giving this 4*.
The King of Hollywood was part of this year’s Camden Fringe.