The Gallery Players present Playhouse Creatures by April De Angelis – Oranges….. five gutsy women…. a fun-loving king…. and a theatre!
The latest play presented by The Gallery Players is Playhouse Creatures by April de Angelis, which tells the story of the first actresses on the English stage. We are introduced to five gutsy women who find their home in the theatre.
Audiences flocked to the theatre to see these dazzling women strut their stuff upon the stage. They were exotic. But, more daringly, they were independent. In an age when most women were deemed to be the property of their husband or father, these women controlled their own destiny. They earned their own money and they appeared to be larger-than-life but for some the future may be uncertain.
April de Angelis has created an intelligent, bawdy, thoughtful, funny and touching look at the lives of these pioneering women who recognised that they were being given an opportunity to better themselves and they grabbed onto this newfound freedom and didn’t let go.
In the play we get to see these new stars shine on stage but more importantly we get to peak behind the backstage curtain and sample the dramas in the dressing room, the petty jealousies, the rivalries and the strong friendships.
Famously there is Nell Gwyn, a favourite not only of the King but of the crowds in the pit. She is joined by Mary Betterton, the wife of the actor/manager Thomas Betterton, the experienced Doll Common, wayward preacher’s daughter Elizabeth Farley and Nell’s rival Becky Marshall.
Photo Credit: Becky Linge as Nell Gwyn. Credit Mike Kwasniak
Set in 1669, Charles II has restored the monarchy and one of his first acts was to decree that from hence forth women should play all the female roles in the theatre.
For people like “pretty, witty Nell”, as Samuel Pepys described Gwyn, this was a gift, giving her an opportunity to shine. Along with mentor and lover Charles Hart she helped invent farce. The pair frequently played a warring couple trading barbs and witty put-downs with Nell frequently appealing directly to the audience which roared its approval. It was a her wicked sense of humour and charisma which not only made her a huge star but attracted the attention of the King who, in 1670, swept her off to his bed.
While, Nell was the resident comedienne, Mary Betterton, grand-daughter of Shakespeare’s colleague Richard Burbage, was the first women to play Lady Macbeth, Ophelia in Hamlet, Goneril and Cordelia in King Lear and Portia in The Merchant of Venice while Becky Marshall was queen of jigs and songs, Elizabeth Farley was the ingenue and Doll Common was a reliable character actress.
The Gallery Players has recreated a Restoration theatre, complete with Royal Box, for this production and the studio will be awash with wigs and fans.
Funny and thought-provoking, Playhouse Creatures, directed by Helen Clarke, is at the Gallery Studio, in St Georges Street, Ipswich, from April 8-13, 2024. Tickets can be booked at www.galleryplayers.co.uk
SUFFOLK THEATRE 