"In 1660, Charles II returned to the throne and decreed that women would—for the first time—be allowed to perform on the English stage. The King and many others turned out in droves to see the newest young beauties, often with the hope of taking one home. Playhouse Creatures explores the lives of some of these actresses, including the incredibly famous Nell Gwyn. As they take their turns in the spotlight, some of them go from “it-girl ingenue” to “used up” as soon as the next “it-girl” comes along. The play is a vivacious account of the fight these women faced to be seen as legitimate actors.
Playhouse Creatures, revised and expanded from its original 1993 version to include Elizabeth Barry, the Earl of Rochester and Thomas Otway, sketches in the career curves of several female players: Elizabeth Farley, her career cut short by pregnancy; Rebecca Marshall, undone by the enmity of a courtier to whose desires she proved insufficiently pliant; Nell Gwyn, ascending thanks to a fortuitous combination of determined ambition, skill and luck from selling oranges via the stage to Charles II's bedchamber; and Mary Betterton, whose ultimate handicap was simply that she had aged out of her appeal. We now also see Mrs Barry climbing to prominence almost literally on the corpse of Rochester.
Although her overall concern is with a number of women trying to do full justice to their individual potentials in a profession which requires them merely to be objects (whether to the audience in general or to particular spectators in private)."
Source: http://university.kval.com/news/arts-culture/playhouse-creatures-opens-april-15/245703
