Playhouse Creatures

Written By April De Angelis directed Denzel Westley-Sanderson.

Bored by her role as an orange seller, a young Nell Gwyn is keen to try her hand at acting.

It's the 1670s and theatres are opening up again all over London and women are, for the first time, legally allowed to perform.

Set both on stage and off we see the often absurdly dramatic snippets of the women's theatrical repertoire and get to overhear the sometimes bawdy dressing room rivalries.

Though it is often comic, you are also reminded of the transitory nature of beauty and fame and that the gutter is never far away when the fickle favour of aristocratic patrons wanes.