Name: Review: Playhouse Creatures at the Orange Tree
Item: Orange Tree Theatre
Author: Amanda Hodges

April De Angelis’1993 play is certainly well named. For seventeenth-century audiences crowding in to witness the novelty of seeing women finally taking to the stage in Restoration London, they were indeed fantastical creatures, both alluring novelties and figures of ribald mirth quickly judged. Those women first treading the boards faced a host of obstacles, from rowdy punters or spurned lovers to the career-ending complication of pregnancy and everything in between.

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OUR VERDICT

★★★

Ellie Kurttz

Angelis’ witty and lively story, breezily directed by Michael Oakley, revolves around a quintet of such women all under the wing of the redoubtable matriarch Mrs Betterton (Anna Chancellor), a granddaughter of the great Richard Burbage, one of the original actors in Shakespeare’s company.

Acclaimed for her Shakespearean fervour, playwright Colley Cibber dubbed her “so great a Mistress of Nature” for her famous role of Lady Macbeth, and hints of her inner resolve and star quality emerge here in Chancellor’s winning performance.

As Nell Gwyn, the newcomer in town who’s a rather bawdy orange-seller with thespian ambitions, Zoe Brough is also terrific, persuasively conveying Gwyn’s winsome charm.

Ellie Kurttz

The whole cast offers lively, energetic performances full of bold humour that offer a glimpse of what life would have been like for these pioneering women.

With excerpts from contemporary plays (Hamlet the Ditherer is a deft touch!) included and a narrative that switches from the footlights to backstage life (well conveyed by Elliot Brigg’s smooth lighting), the only complaint is that the roles seem rather sketchily drawn, the pace too superficial to truly fascinate.

We get an idea of what this brave new world must have been like- and it was undoubtedly challenging territory- but sketched so broadly it loses some of its potential impact.

Nonetheless, it remains a play that will please many with its warm heart and engaging cast of characters and offers a welcome spotlight on an overlooked and absorbing slice of theatre history.