The Thrill of Love

The Lind Theatre is excited to present an intriguing drama ‘The Thrill of Love’ by Amanda Whittington.

It is the true story of Ruth Ellis (Oriana Packman) who shot and killed her lover David Blakely in 1955 and became the last woman to be hanged in Britain. The play shows us a place where thousands of girls like Ruth dream of escape, of being befriended by Diana Dors, of fast lives and bright lights, and returning in a silver Rolls-Royce. In the Knightsbridge Club Ruth manages, the constant flow of alcohol lubricates idle talk of Cliveden and Stephen Ward (of the Profumo affair notoriety). It seems better than working in the factory? 

But Ruth ends up in Holloway Prison, not Hollywood. Today there would have been a reprieve for Ruth on the grounds of “diminished responsibility” or “crime of passion”, neither of which was in place in the fifties. 

The Thrill of Love, plays with the notion of good girls versus bad girls well, through the character of Doris Judd, (Sarah Blaikie ) the club char-lady and Ruth's confidante. 

This is a story of obsession: Ruth's obsession with the wastrel playboy Blakely, who scrounged off her for years, and the obsession of Detective Inspector Gale, (Matthew Taverner) who knows she did it but wants to understand why. 

Directed by Judith Boyd, it is also the story of a woman falling head over heels with the myth of great romantic love.