PLAYHOUSE CREATURES. To 10 November.
Dundee.
PLAYHOUSE CREATURES
by April de Angelis.
Dundee Repertory Theatre To 10 Nov 2007.
Tue-Sat 7.45pm, Mat 10 Nov 2.30pm.
Audio-described 10 Nov 2.30pm (+Touch Tour).
Runs 2hr 25min One interval.
TICKETS: 01382 223530.
www.dundeereptheatre.co.uk
Review: Thelma Good 7 November 2007.
Political barbs delivered by shafts of wit.
King Charles II had enjoyed seeing actresses during his European exile. Back on the English throne in 1660, he reopened the Puritan-closed theatres and allowed women to act. Restoration theatre flourished, but despite keen fans, being an actress was not respectable.
April de Angelis’s 1993 play has versions with and without men. This Dundee Rep revival is all-female, increasing the power of the unseen men - king, earl, theatre manager and principle actor or playwright - who control their destiny as the women entertain in a former bearpit theatre. Its political barbs are delivered by shafts of wit and emotional thrusts.
Karen Tennant gives the production a forestage with candlelight projecting into the auditorium, and tables and chairs below the edge where an orange seller might ply her wares. Behind the forestage is the female dressing room with costumes and props hanging in the square bays at the back; above is another floor with mini-arches and gauze curtains. Muted colours: greens, creams, browns, reds, and period costumes help unify the production. The stories are told both off and on the King’s company stage, giving snippets of the mannered theatrical devices of the day.
Fine director Alison Peebles has brought together a cast whose qualities inform their roles. Looking after the actresses is Ann Louise Ross’s gloriously elderly, earthy and grimed Doll Common, an honest, real woman. Mrs Brotherton, Irene MacDougall, at the start of the play the leading lady, despite understanding the theatre’s specialness relies on a formulaic approach to acting where emotions relate to the clockface. Despair, she tells Nell, is five past twelve.
Emily Winter convinces as Mrs Marshall to whom the stage is just a job. Powerfully vivid and moving is Clare Yuille’s Mrs Farley, a young woman who catches the King’s eye but not his heart. Her decline to the gutter is painful to see. Moving ever upwards, glowing like one of her oranges, is Judith Williams’ Nell Gwynne.
De Angelis’s play, where women are biologically vulnerable, underpaid, under-rewarded and discriminated against is set nearly 350 years ago but we know Playhouse Creatures, and their unfair world, today.
Doll Common: Ann Louise Ross.
Nell Gwyne: Judith Williams.
Mrs Farley: Clare Yuille.
Mrs Betterton: Irene MacDougall.
Mrs Marshall: Emily Winter.
Director: Alison Peebles.
Designer: Karen Tennant.
Lighting: Ian Scott.
Sound: John Scott.
Movement: Anthony Missen.
Accent coach: Ros Steen.
2007-11-09 23:29:36