Women take to the stage in style

PLAYHOUSE CREATURES
Upstairs at the Gatehouse

APRIL de Angelis’ restoration play about the first actresses allowed on the British stage starts how it means to go on.
Opening like the three witches scene from Macbeth, it constantly takes theatrical stereotypes and turns them on their head, giving them real emotion and humour.
From the old and ill-educated Doll Common’s gems of wisdom to the foul-mouthed antics of the actresses backstage, the play gives a fresh, if not entirely new, look at the way actresses were and in many ways still are being treated.
But this is not a play about the exploitation of these women. It is about the duality of the person and the actress and what the characters have to do to make the best of what they’ve got while they’ve got it.
All the characters go through their own particular journey and while the tone shifts from comic to more serious in the second half, the jolt is minor due to well-judged pacing in the script and direction. The production is packed full of wonderful and sometimes hilariously vulgar lines, which the outstanding cast deliver with superb relish.
Such is their chemistry that to pick a stand-out is almost impossible, but if pushed then Susan Kyd’s ageing diva would just sneak it for me.
In the end, the play runs on a little, but five minutes of flab is little cause for concern with a play this lean and tasty.

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