‘BONNIE’S IDEAS OF FAME AND FORTUNE WERE RUINED BY CLYDE, BUT SHE STOOD BY HIM’

With the hit stage musical coming to Ireland, its stars talk about finding empathy for the fabled characters who died in a bloody shootout 90 years ago this month

‘They know their days will come to an end. They find a little peace in knowing that they’ll go down together’

Bad people make good stories. This was never more true than in the tale of Bonnie and Clyde, the Depression-era gangsters who shot their way around the central states of the US on a robbing and killing spree that left at least 13 dead, including nine police officers.

It coincided with the early days of the tabloid press, and journalists breathlessly reported their actions. Newly impoverished Americans were inclined to side with the underdog, until the bodies mounted up and people eventually became disgusted. The pair were killed in a bloody shootout 90 years ago next Thursday. They should probably have lain fairly quiet in their graves, except, in 1967, Warren Beatty produced a hugely provocative film, starring himself and Faye Dunaway and directed by Arthur Penn.

This relaunched the pair of reprobates into the popular consciousness in spectacular fashion. The 1960s provided fertile ground for anti-establishment, youthful rebellion and this tale found a willing audience in the countercultural decade.

There is something rather insolent about Beatty’s European-styled film. Only scant attempts were made to show how both characters had come from chronic deprivation and hardship. Dunaway is always turned out in elegant dresses. They are given problems in the bedroom department, with Clyde suffering from impotence, and both characters are moody and charismatic. The production brazenly wants the audience to empathise with the characters entirely for the reasons of glamour, iconoclasm and nihilism.

When people hear mention of Bonnie and Clyde, this is what they have in mind. Two glamorous young people who spent their short lives robbing banks, then got gunned down in their prime and left beautiful, bullet-ridden corpses.

Bonnie & Clyde the Musical is due to arrive in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre on July 16, having played Belfast at the end of May. It is currently touring the UK and I went to see it in Glasgow at the King’s Theatre, a lovely Edwardian pile in the city centre.

The musical is a detailed account of the pair of doomed lovers; theirs was not a giant leap into big-time criminality, more a series of babysteps that led to a point of no return. There is an attempt here to get under the skin of two real people. The costume designer, for example, chooses to replicate Bonnie’s signature dress from actual photographs, rather than opting for a glamour look.

The two leads, Katie Tonkinson and Alex James-Hatton, are merciful to their characters. “Though I don’t agree with them, I can understand how they ended up in the situation they did,” says Katie, referring to the Great Depression. “People were desperate. Both of them grew up poor and dreamed of a better life for themselves. However, Bonnie innocently wanted to be a star [actress Clara Bow was a heroine, and Bonnie had ambitions to be a published author]. It was Clyde who dreamed of having gangster power.”

She points out that the jump from bank robbers to murderers wasn’t planned, it was a “him or me” situation for Clyde. “Bonnie didn’t actually kill anyone herself, but she stood by Clyde no matter what.

“They felt untouchable for quite a lot of their crime spree”, she adds, up until the time Clyde’s brother Buck died in a shootout “Then the idea of their mortality sets in and they know their days will come to an end. They find a little peace in knowing that they’ll ‘go down together’.”

The definitive book on the subject is Texan writer Jeff Guinn’s Go Down Together — The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde (2009). It’s a meticulously researched 466 page study showing the often grotty life the two outlaws lived, sleeping in the car or in the outdoors. Bonnie in particular suffered grievously from an injured leg following a car crash when battery acid burned through to her bone. For the last year of her life, she couldn’t walk and Clyde had to carry her. She was in constant pain.

The book presents a detailed picture of the world Bonnie and Clyde came from. Clyde’s father was a small farmer, ruined by the Depression. The family went to live in the shanty town of West Dallas, and for a time slept under their wagon, before their father managed to build a shack. Bonnie’s father died when she was four, leaving her mother to support her three kids working as a seamstress in a factory.

Nobody tries to justify their terrible crimes, but justifying is different to understanding how things came to be. And lawmen and banks were often unpopular at the time because of bankruptcy and repossessions. Part of the reason Bonnie and Clyde managed to stay on the run for two years was because of what Guinn refers to as “the slum community’s code of silence”.

Clyde was first imprisoned for car theft. He was sent to work on Eastham Prison Farm, backbreaking work that a slight man (he was a scrawny 5ft 6in) would be physically unable to endure for long. He amputated two of his toes to get out of the work. This was very bad timing: he was released six days later as his mother had managed to secure parole for him. Clyde was also repeatedly raped in prison by a fellow inmate. He murdered this man, but the blame was taken by another prisoner, who was already behind bars for life — honour among thieves.

In James-Hatton’s view, the experience of prison life affected Clyde hugely, and is an important aspect of the actor’s interpretation: “During my research, I read that he ‘goes from a boy to a rattle snake’ after the abuse in prison. The shift is massive. We’ve not seen him kill anyone at this point, and that changes everything. He wants revenge on every level.

“As an actor, I feel it’s our job to find empathy for the character, even if we personally don’t agree with the things they’re doing,” he adds. “I personally believe Clyde was incredibly loyal and caring to the people within his circle. Unfortunately, due to his upbringing and lack of wealth, anyone not in his circle would get a very different side of him. But it’s funny how a lot of the public at the time actually revered the couple. I think that says a lot.”

Throughout the show, Bonnie continues to write her poetry. Tonkinson says: “Bonnie’s writing is one of the things she always wanted to be famous for. It is their personal documen