“It Happened to Me is a new witty one-man show that shines a light on one man’s extraordinary rise and ultimate demise.”
By all accounts, Peter Lawford lived a pretty remarkable life. Acting as a conduit between the Rat Pack, the Beatles, and the Kennedys, he experienced all the highs of being an integral part of the elite social circles of the 1950s and 60s. The problem with riding the peaks that come with such a profession is that one must also contend with the inevitable troughs. This is the exact predicament that Peter Briffa explores in his first play at the Old Red Lion Theatre in 14 years, It Happened to Me.
The play is an odyssey through the life and work of actor Peter Lawford. It is set on Christmas Eve 1983 at the Betty Ford Centre, where Lawford is receiving rehabilitation treatment for the drug and alcohol addictions that have plagued him for most of his adult life. His neighbouring patients include country music star Johnny Cash, as well as former on-screen partner Elizabeth Taylor. The play is structured around Lawford’s ruminations on the events that have led up to his current predicament.
Born into an officious military family in London, a chance encounter with a talent scout in Los Angeles launched a screen career that would culminate in him becoming one of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood. He was invited to join the Rat Pack in 1959, where he spent his time rubbing shoulders with the biggest stars of the day, such as Judy Garland and Fred Astaire, and was notably the last person to speak to Marilyn Monroe before her untimely death in 1962. A prolific womaniser in his time, Lawford’s reputed charm was so strong that he married into the dynastic Kennedy family after wedding Patricia Kennedy, making him brother-in-law to the eventual U.S. President, John F. Kennedy.
However, by the time we meet him at the beginning of the play, Lawford’s influence in both Hollywood and Washington has long since faded. His marriage to Patricia ended acrimoniously in divorce, and his relationship with the Rat Pack lies in tatters after his excommunication from the group for a perceived slight against Sinatra. Major Hollywood studios now view him as a liability due to his drinking problem, combined with dwindling box-office returns. All he has for company this Christmas Eve is a small amount of smuggled cocaine and the occasional phone call from his neighbour, Johnny Cash.
A one-man play, actor Jonathan Hansler portrays Lawford. His task is not an enviable one, as the production is essentially one man’s hour-long soliloquy on the decisions and mistakes that have shaped his life — a challenge he embodies and executes with aplomb. Director Owain Rose makes clever use of lighting to give the sparsely decorated set a sense of grandeur beyond the sum of its parts. Briffa’s writing is rich and witty, while also providing moments of reflective pathos. However, the sheer density of the material propels the play forward at an almost breakneck speed. While this momentum mirrors Lawford’s own restless and self-destructive life, it occasionally leaves little room for either the actor or the audience to fully absorb the emotional weight of what is being revealed. As a result, moments that might otherwise linger and resonate are sometimes swept along too quickly. Even so, It Happened to Me remains a compelling and accomplished piece of writing, offering a fascinating and often poignant portrait of a life lived intensely — and ultimately at great cost.