New Vic drama marks beginning of women on stage

Published: 27 January 2018
Reporter: Steve Orme

Some of the cast of Playhouse Creatures in rehearsal Credit: Andrew Billington

Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre has selected April De Angelis’s Playhouse Creatures as the first play in a season of work focused on empowerment to mark the centenary of women’s suffrage.

This new production of Angelis’s drama celebrates a bold moment in the history of modern theatre, going backstage in a Restoration playhouse to tell the story of women being permitted to act on stage for the first time.

Set in 1663, it explores the relationships between four female pioneers of the stage as they negotiate their new-found fame and strive for equality in the playhouse. The story is “full of bawdy comedy, theatrical flair and emotional poignancy”.

Rebecca Brewer, who appeared in Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera at the National Theatre in 2016, will play Mrs Farley. Hannah Edwards who was in Harold Brighouse, Stanley Houghton and Allan Monkhouse’s Horniman’s Choice at the Finborough Theatre in 2015 and took the role of Nancy in Amanda Whittington’s Kiss Me Quickstep at the New Vic in 2016 plays Nell.

Danielle Henry is Mrs Marshall, George Howard plays Otway and Anna Kirke who was Mrs Wilberforce in Graham Linehan’s adaptation of William Rose’s screenplay of The Ladykillers at the New Vic in 2015 takes the role of Doll.

Polly Lister, who was Miss Havisham in Neil Bartlett’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations at Derby Theatre in 2017, played the title role in Theresa Heskins’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen at the New Vic in 2016 and was Mam in Lee Hall’s Cooking With Elvis at Derby Theatre in 2013, plays Mrs Betterton.

Newly appointed New Vic associate director Zoë Waterman, who was at the helm of The Kitchen Sink by Tom Wells at the New Vic in 2016 and The Rubenstein Kiss by James Phillips at Nottingham Playhouse in 2015, directs.

Designer is Lis Evans, lighting designer Alexandra Stafford Marshall and sound designer James Earls-Davis. Choreographer is Beverley Norris-Edmunds, Jonathan Girling is the composer, Lewis Penfold is the fight director and Charmian Hoare is voice coach.

Playhouse Creatures runs at the New Vic from Friday 2 until Saturday 24 February.

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