1965 Vivien Leigh (52) as Contessa Sanziani in the play La Contessa. 

The Contessa of the title was actually based on a real person, the eccentric Marchesa Luisa Casati, one of the most notorious women of the 20’s, who scandalized polite society with her desire to be “a living work of art”; which once manifested itself in a dress made of illuminated lightbulbs. 

The play was financed by a film company that hoped a success on the stage would lead to a film, but sadly after a try out in Newcastle, Liverpool and Manchester the play folded without ever coming to London. Perhaps audiences were not yet ready to accept Vivien in a character role that played down her looks; because whilst the Marchesa Luisa Casati had been a glamourous figure in her youth, immortalized on canvas by Boldini, the play takes place in her twilight years, when aged 71 she was broke, washed up and living in London. 

Even Vivien admitted “If I appeared in a flashback as the beauty the Marchesa Luisa Casati was supposed to have been, I think we would have had a success.” But the decision to play an older woman was a conscious one, and she saw the play as a “bridge to parts where I don’t have to be a beautiful woman. I thought it would make me acceptable as an actress that didn’t have to be cast that way anymore.”

Play: La Contessa. Role: Contessa Sanziani. Playwright: Paul Osborn from the novel by Maurice Druon. Theatre: previews in Newcastle, Liverpool and Manchester. Opening Night: 6 April 1965. 

Photo: Rita Maylon collection Vivien Leigh Circle Archive THM/530 – V&A Museum.