4 STARS, March 29 – April 1. Riddled with some wonderfully bawdy songs and quick witted humour, it is unsurprising that Nell Gwynn won Best New Comedy at the 2016 Olivier Awards, says Richard Davies
©Tristram Kenton
It’s not hard to see why Nell Gwynn won Best New Comedy at the 2016 Olivier Awards. The play is a joyful and at times hilarious celebration of the life of an orange seller and prostitute who rose via the stage to become the mistress of King Charles II. Peppered with puns, double entendres and bawdy songs, the humour goes straight over the head of your average teenager, but was lapped up by the Yvonne Arnaud theatre audience.
Author Jessica Swales, clearly an exciting new British talent, avoided creating a pastiche of Restoration theatre and instead used modern language to “capture the quick wit of the time”. She has largely succeeded in her aim, creating a highly popular theatre show which combines elements of music hall and farce – even if it does at times feels like an episode of Blackadder.
While the play does not pretend to be historically accurate, the author has clearly done her research. The Restoration was about much more than the monarchy. Cromwell’s lot – arguably the Taliban of their time – had banned Christmas and closed down all the theatres. Charles brought them all back and encouraged the import of a radical French innovation he’d enjoyed during his Paris exile of having female actors on stage. Many of these early female thespians, such as Nell, doubled as prostitutes and punters could pay an extra penny as a “peeping fee” to watch them change backstage.
Swales has Nell talent spotted by romantic actor Charles Hart, after he witnesses her expertly belittling a heckler. Hart saucily recommends to Killigrew, Manager of the King’s Company, that he should “try her out”. Nell quickly becomes a star of the stage and attracts the King’s attention, who immediately makes her an indecent proposal. But Nell does not give in easily. Drawing on the skills she learned in her mother Old Ma Gwynn’s brothel, she bargains him up to a cool £500 a year, plus silks and a maid. Not bad for a girl from Old Coal Yard.
©Tristram Kenton
Laura Pitt-Pulford is superb as Nell, feisty, witty and fizzing with mischief, especially when she savagely satirises the her rival mistresses, the scheming Barbara Castlemaine and French tart Louise de Kerouaille played by Pandora Clifford and Phillipa Flynn.
Ben Righton is cheeky and playful as Charles II, looking like David Walliams but sounding like the future Charles III in his “squidgygate” era, for example when he teases Nell that her theatrical rival Moll Davies’s “entrance is spectacular”. I also enjoyed Nicholas Bishop as the put-upon playwright John Dryden, endlessly under pressure to please his insatiable audience by rehashing Shakespeare, including a comedy version of King Lear. Nell offers him the somewhat anachronistic advice that Shakespeare’s Juliet is a “noodle” and that he should write proper parts for real women – injecting a bit of Ginger spice style girl-power to the seventeenth century.
Esh Alladi is wonderfully entertaining as Edward Kynaston, the male actor of women’s parts whose career is threatened by this new breed of “actor-esses”. But the standout comedic performance was Mossie Smith as Nancy, Nell’s dresser and confidante, who as well as having many of the best lines, demonstrates a brilliant comic timing and a wonderful talent for farce.
The other star of the show is the designer Hugh Durrant. The set is a splendid creation, with the King leering over the stage from his royal box. But it is the costumes that really steal the show. In the play’s vernacular, they ensure that every actor enjoys a wonderful entrance and are worthy of an exhibition in their own right.
- Showing at the Yvonne Arnaud from March 29 – April 1. For tickets visit yvonne-arnaud.co.uk
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