There was a time when every ex-RSC actor had a monarch up their sleeve to be whipped out when the work was slow. Fortunately, both the monarchy and the one-person show have gone out of fashion, but they pop up here in this trot around the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the only woman ever to be queen of both France and England, and who "birthed a pride" of eight live children with Henry II, including Richard the Lionheart and naughty King John.
It was a long life, and it is a long show too. Eleanor was clearly a fascinating figure, who believed firmly in the equality of women in an era when women were not equal. Independently wealthy, she divorced Louis VII of France to marry the young Henry Plantagenet, and she was as clever as she was courageous: she thought nothing of leading a crusade.
Eileen Page plays her beautifully as an iron lady with a terrible weakness - a corroding jealousy of her husband's mistresses. When she felt particularly slighted, she turned to murder or conspiracy. When relations broke down between her and Henry, she plotted against him and attempted to flee to the French court with her sons. Placed under house arrest by her husband, she outlived him and eventually became regent.
Unfortunately, Catherine Muschamp's script needs a good dusting-down. Like many one-person shows, it never finds a reason or a construction to cope with the fact that there is only Page on stage, and the writing is so archaic and dry that it is like dipping into a history book that nobody has opened for 20 years. Like Eleanor, Page struggles heroically. But she needs a real play, not this thesp's plaything.
· Until September 17. Box office: 020-7287 2875.
