September 2007 – Playhouse Creatures



Play Name
Playhouse Creatures
Playwright
April de Angelis
Performance Start Date
Tuesday 18 September 2007
Performance End Date
Saturday 22 September 2007
Location:
Harrogate Studio Theatre
Director:
Dermot Hill
Cast
  • Mrs Betterton .......... Judy Methven
  • Doll Common .......... Sue Rawson
  • Nell Gwyn ............... Katherine Morse
  • Mrs Farley .............. Rhiannon Pattison
  • Mrs Marshall ........... Jemma Thompson
Synopsis

Playhouse Creatures is a comic drama. The year is 1669 - a bawdy and troublesome time in Restoration London. The theatres have just re-opened after 17 years of suppression under the Puritans, encouraging a great upsurge in dramatic actitivty. Of vital importance to the development of drama was the entrance of the first English actresses upon the stage. The author has taken five famous figures - Nell Gwyn, Elizabeth Farley, Rebecca Marshall, Doll Common and Mary Betterton - and given us a fascinating look at the precarious lot of actresses at that time. A moving and often comic account of the true lives of Restoration actresses (with some earthy language and bawdy situations).

Photographs