In one corner we have Rebecca Vardy, who has been accused by the woman in the opposite corner – Coleen Rooney – of leaking personal information about her to the press, so Vardy sues Rooney for defamation, all of this cleverly put together in the play ‘Vardy V Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial’.
We all remember the tribulations, the gossip, and the salacious details that were revealed in the case which was called by the press as the trial of the century. Vardy (Lucy May Barker) and Rooney (Laura Dos Santos) slugged it out in court and we all know that Vardy was not able to prove her case (last year), that Rooney libelled her by blaming her for the leaks from her private Instagram account. Rooney was the victor, according to the judge (the actual ruling, by Judge Mrs Justice Steyn, saw Vardy’s claims as inconsistent and unfounded. There were large parts of evidence that simply did not hold up in court, or were deemed too far-fetched or ‘implausible.’)
In the show, which plays out like a football match as a battle between two very famous WAGS (Wives and Girlfriends), two pundits (Halema Hussain and Nathan McMullen) give us the play by play – commentary on what is happening, what has happened, and what is about to happen – it adds quite a clever and fun twist to the trial and not allowing the show to succumb to just another play about a trial (this is definitely not ‘Witness for the Prosecution!)’
Writer (adaptor) Liv Hennessy has taken bit parts of the actual trial testimony and turned this into the crux of what this show is all about, the amazing, exciting and unbelievable testimony that these two women gave to the judge on the witness stand. Some of it is hard to believe (a lost phone, deletion of all messages, and Davy Jones), while one of the women keeps digging herself into a large whole, with her credibility sinking fast. But taken as satire, this show gives you food for thought on social media, celebrity and privacy, and when you combine all three, you get a situation like this. It’s the modern age of social media, and as we now know, anything is possible.
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