Sisters under the celebrity skin

Inspired by the film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Robert Aldrich's 1962 shocker starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, Film Club is the latest play from the experimental theatre company People Show. The idea for the show began with a performer, Bernadette Russell, and a director, Jessica Worrall, sharing an obsession with films and wanting to explore the current fascination with celebrity.

"I spent most of my childhood watching black-and-white films in the afternoon instead of playing," says Russell, who plays Rebecca, a character obsessed with Bette Davis and in particular her role as Baby Jane. "I had the desire to escape into a Technicolor Busby Berkeley fantasy world," she adds. "But my character in the play, Rebecca, lives on a farm in Dorset. She chooses Baby Jane to emulate, a character so powerful that Rebecca can move as far away from herself as possible."

The other actors in the play are Gareth Brierley whose character is painfully immature and an obsessive liar, Nick Tigg who plays a controlling bully, and Nicky Blackwell who is the dark horse of the piece. This comic deconstruction of a legend sees the cast enter into an experiment after responding to an ad in a newspaper (printed in the play's programme): "Volunteers required to explore themes and scenes from the cult camp-classic horror film...." Together, they fight to survive a menacing re-enactment of the film's darker themes: isolation, impersonation, deception, and starvation.

At first Rebecca is wearing glasses with her dark hair tied back. "But as soon as I can, I transform myself with loads of lipstick and a big blonde wig of ringlets and a big white dress," Russell - who is also part of the stand-up comedy duo Wonderhorse - says. Russell's recent credits include Lavinier in the film Framed, Mrs Tilford in The Children's Hour, and Bea in a new musical, Lonely Hearts. "But Rebecca is obsessed with celebrity, rather than her own mundane country-girl self."

Film Club is People Show's 113th production. The company was founded in 1966, and since then the likes of Mike Figgis, Ken Campbell and Sid Palmer have all passed through its doors. Its most recent productions have been People Show: 112 - about Harry Houdini and called The Art Of Escape - and in June People Show: 111 - a two-handed comedy about the cult of Dionysus called The Slide Show.

All of the productions come together through group improvisation. Usually this requires the performers to dig deep but Russell was spared that. "Well, I have watched the film 37 times. I know every line, the colour of the wallpaper, every single detail. I can do impressions of every single character," she says.

"I desperately want [Nicky] Blackwell to be Joan Crawford, so I can fight with her," says Russell. "Her reluctance to be like Joan Crawford makes me angry - because she won't play. But it is this idea of forced rivalry - the place women occupied then and now in Hollywood, and the idea that once you are past your sell-by date you become tragic and desperate - that is interesting in today's climate."

Film Club, Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, Hammersmith, London W9 (020-8237 1111), 5-24 January