APRIL De Angelis’s Playhouse Creatures is a marvellous, funny, touching and convincing imagining of the lives and experiences of the first women to act on the public stage, during the Restoration monarchy of Charles II. A new production,starring Anna Chancellor and Katherine Kingsley, is coming to the Theatre Royal Bath from Monday 28th April to Saturday 3rd May, as one of only two tour venues direct from Richmond’s Orange Tree Theatre.
Directed by Michael Oakley, the production also features Doña Croll, Zoe Brough and Nicole Sawyerr.
It’s the swinging (16)60s, and ‘the merry monarch’ Charles II is on the throne. After a violent civil war, England’s theatres have finally reopened and, for the first time, women are allowed to perform in public. In the West End, grande dame Mrs Betterton rules the roost. But there’s a new face in town: an orange-seller with dreams of stardom.
From dressing-room camaraderie to bitter rivalry, April De Angelis’ gloriously exuberant, bawdily funny and deeply poignant play celebrates five women grabbing this newfound freedom and making their way in an unfamiliar world. But at what price?
Anna Chancellor, who plays Mrs Betterton, grew up in Somerset and went to school in Wiltshire. Her many theatre credits include productions at the National Theatre, RSC, Donmar Warehouse, Royal Court Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, on UK tour and in the West End. Her many television roles include Lady Frances Grey in My Lady Jane, Melanie in The Split and Lady Anstruther in Downton Abbey, alongside roles in The Crown, Shetland, Waking the Dead, Tipping the Velvet, Pride and Prejudice, Poirot, Inspector Morse and many more. Anna’s numerous film credits include Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Testament of Youth, St. Trinians and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Three-time Olivier Award nominee Katherine Kingsley plays Mrs Marshall. Her previous stage roles include Marlene Dietrich in Piaf at the Donmar and Lina Lamont in the West End production of Singin’ in the Rainm as well as The 39 Steps, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Helena in Michael Grandage Company’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Katherine, who trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, has previously performed at the Theatre Royal Bath starring as Tracy Lord in High Society in 2005 and as Dusty Springfield in Dusty in 2018.
Doña Croll, who plays Doll Common, has appeared in eight productions at the Theatre Royal Bath, including Henry V in 1997, Elmina’s Kitchen in 2003, The American Plan at the Ustinov Studio in 2013, Pride and Prejudice in 2017, The Doctor in 2022, The Score in 2023 and a multi-media role on screen in George Orwell’s 1984 in 2024.
Zoe Brough appears as Nell Gwyn, and Nicole Sawyerr plays Mrs Farley.
Director Michael Oakley’s theatre credits include Infamous at the Jermyn Street Theatre; Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare’s Globe; The Life and Times of Fanny Hill at Bristol Old Vic; and Playhouse Creatures for Theatre on the Fly at Chichester Festival Theatre.
Playhouse Creatures by April De Angelis was first seen at Theatre Royal Haymarket in 1993, with notable revivals at London’s Old Vic in 1997, Dundee Rep in 2007 and Chichester Festival Theatre in 2012.
Photographs by Ellie Kurttz