Nell Gwyn is often portrayed as a saucy orange wench, the fiery, red-headed Herefordshire lass who captivated Charles II and gave birth to the future Duke of St Albans. April de Angelis's sensitive characterisation seeks to get beyond the bodice and the basket to reveal a true pioneer of the English stage.
De Angelis's dramatic speciality is the group dynamics of women, and here she has chosen to observe one of the most dynamic women's groups in history - the first generation of female actors who bestowed women with a profession, a public identity and a sense of control over their own destiny.
Employing an all-female cast of six, De Angelis celebrates the talent, achievements and camaraderie of this remarkable theatrical sisterhood. But she also reminds us not to get too carried away with the idea that the emergence of actresses on the Restoration stage struck a decisive blow for feminism.
The leading actress, Elizabeth Barry, received 50 shillings per performance, while her co-star Thomas Betterton pocketed £5. Actresses could achieve little without the attentions of an aristocratic patron, while theatrical managements exploited their sexual availability as a marketing tool. As one of De Angelis's characters remarks sourly: "We play what we are - where's the freedom in that?" At least Abby Ford's winning, sparky Nell harbours no illusions that she is a great deal more than amply arrayed set dressing: "Once they've seen a real tit a stuffed sock won't 'ack it any more," she says.
Gwyn's name and good fortune survived for posterity, though De Angelis is equally interested in those of her colleagues who were not so fortunate. Joanne Froggatt gives an extremely touching performance as an actress whose pregnancy determines a return to the streets. Susan Wooldridge is exceptionally poignant as the genteel Mrs Betterton, whose hard-won experience counts for nothing in the face of encroaching age. Only Sandra Voe's marvellously decrepit, flea-bitten Doll Common emerges as a perennial survivor, her devotion to the theatrical life as unchanged as her undergarments.
· Until May 3. Box office: 0113-213 7700
