Perhaps it was the unbridled pettiness? Perhaps it was the amateur sleuthing that caught it? Perhaps it was the star names involved? Or perhaps it was lockdown monotony and the refreshing novelty of a non-pandemic related news story. Whatever it was, from the Summer of 2020 onwards you would have been hard-pressed to have found someone in the UK unaware of the steadily unravelling scandal, one that would eventually culminate in a libel case played out in the English High Court. It was the case of Vardy v Rooney or, as it more affectionately came to be known as, Wagatha Christie.
For those not aware, in 2019 Coleen Rooney (wife of Wayne) came to suspect that her private Instagram posts were being leaked to the tabloids, in particular The S*n. With a bit of deft social media manipulation, Coleen began to lure the unsuspecting culprit behind the leaks into a beautiful game of catfish and mouse. With the game over and the dust settled, Rooney’s finger was left pointing squarely at none other than Rebekah Vardy (wife of Jamie). It’s a game of two halves and these better halves were soon front and centre across UK media as Rooney publicly accused Vardy of the leak via Twitter only for Vardy to deny the charges and then commence legal action against Rooney for defamation. The case ensued, a verdict was reached and the drama melted away…
Except it didn’t, with the pair continuing to exchange jabs publicly and unfurl further twists in the tale. And now all that has passed between them is the subject of it’s very own verbatim play. Deftly adapted from the court transcipts by Liv Hennessy (finalist in the Paines Plough’s Women’s Prize for Playwriting and Story Producer on ITV’s Emmerdale) and helmed by Lisa Spirling (Artistic Director and Chief Executive of new-writing venue Theatre503 and coordinator of the JMK Trust Regional Director’s Program), Vardy V Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial promises every scintillating detail from inside the room where it happened. The show was first given an initial … *ahem* trial… run at Wyndham’s Theatre in London (where it shared the stage with Life Of Pi also due to visit Theatre Royal Brighton) in 2022, where its success with both audience and critics granted it a fuller stint on the West End and now a UK tour with the original cast on board to reprise their roles.
Courtroom dramas come in all shapes and sizes but you might be hard-pressed to find one as bizarre as this and there are certainly no signs of a conclusion with a recent twist in the tale playing out only last month when Vardy trademarked the term “Wagatha Christie” (a move that the show’s producer, Eleanor Loyd, has said caused the creative team a deal of consternation initially). But with such an accomplished team behind the production they were able to push on and, alongside the critical plaudits garnered from its initial run (the Evening Standard having described the show as “an excellent take on a contemporary media circus” and the Guardian praising its “excellent” leads) and, of course, the stranger-than-fiction subject matter, us here at SOURCE are certainly anticipating there being plenty to talk about over half-time (sorry, interval!) drinks.
Theatre Royal Brighton, 15th-17th June 2023
