Based on the biography Edith Head’s Hollywood by Paddy Calistro and the late Hollywood costume designer Edith Head herself, the one-woman show ‘A Conversation with Edith Head’ has become a theatrical hit and praised as one not to miss. Behind the scenes stories, gathered from Paddy Calistro’s 13 hours of recordings with Edith, feed actress Susan Claassen’s dialogue as she converses with members of the audience as though she is Edith Head herself. Bearing a striking resemblance to the costume designer that dressed the likes of Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Bette Davis, Susan Claassen carries the show, reliving Head’s career, in which she won 35 Academy Awards and eight Oscars.

The play, written by both Susan Claassen and Paddy Calistro, has been touring since it premiered at The Invisible Theatre in Tuscon, Arizona in January 2002, and was the sell-out show of Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2007. Most recently, Susan Claassen was found channeling her inner Head at La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival in California in July 2014.

Lorna Slessor