Nell Gwynn

At Jericho Arts Centre until June 24, 2018 (Thursday through Sunday)
Tickets from $20 at unitedplayers.com, 604-224-8007 or at the door

Posted June 9, 2018

In his February 2016 review of the premiere of Nell Gwynn at London’s Apollo Theatre, The Guardian’s Michael Billington called it “a love-letter to theatre itself and the cheerful chaos involved in putting on a play”.

Playwright Jessica Swale tills rich, fertile ground in this play: the end of Cromwell and Puritanism, the establishment of two competing theatre companies (The King’s Company and The Duke’s Company), the introduction of women on the English stage (by edict of Charles II), the sexual adventures of the King, the birth of Restoration comedy, John Dryden’s career as a struggling playwright, the affair between orange-seller/prostitute-cum-actress Nell Gwynn and Charles II – even the habit of royalty owning packs of dogs, in this case – what else? – King Charles Spaniels. More than twenty of them, apparently.

Along the way, Swale’s characters take jabs at Shakespeare, including Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and The Tempest, even (anachronistically) the movie Titanic, and almost everything else in sight. She trashes the easy-to-trash, ridiculously exaggerated and highly formulaic acting style of 17^th century. And, when Nell introduces a backstory to the character she is about to play on stage, Swale takes a swipe at Method Acting.

It’s all in good fun. And audiences are loving this United Players’ production under the direction of Adam Henderson. There’s music – many performers also play instruments – plus Jocelyn Tam on the piano throughout. And there’s dance – jigs and reels. It’s bawdy, smart and colourful. The fourth wall is down, the house lights are up, the cast wanders through the theatre, and you probably could buy an orange from Nell if you had a shilling on you.

It’s also a feminist rallying cry with Nell complaining about Shakespeare’s women falling head-over-heels at first sight with witless ninnies, and women’s roles – written by men – that don’t take into account women’s “knotty and tangly” natures.

Restoration comedy, which Nell Gwynn sends up, is notoriously difficult and there are times when some of United Players’ not-yet-professional cast members don’t quite find the right note. The leads, however, are solid: Charlotte Wright makes a bouncy, bold and feisty Nell, unafraid of rejecting the King’s advances until she gets the promise of five hundred pounds per year, a carriage, an apartment and whatever else her heart desires. Wright simply sparkles when exuberant Nell sings the naughty, “I can dance and I can sing/And I can do the other thing”. Emmett Lee Stang, as Hart, an actor in the King’s Company, takes Nell – and us – through an acting lesson: how to show fear, despair, anger and love through ludicrous gesture and facial expression. Later in the play, Stang shows the warm-hearted side of Hart who, briefly, was Nell’s lover before she was wooed by the foppish, mannered King (Marc LeBlanc). Brian Hinson is hilarious as Kynaston, an actor who, prior to women being allowed on stage, played all the women’s roles for the King’s Company. Facing unemployment when Nell arrives on the scene, Hinson’s sniping and griping provide great comic opportunity. “No woman can play a woman as well as I can play a woman”, Hinson declares, looking sideways down his nose. Elegantly executed by Leeza Udovenko are the dual roles of Lady Castlemaine and Louise de Kéroualle, two other mistresses of Charles II. Udovenko wears two of CS Fergusson-Vaux’s most beautiful gowns. Set designer Chris Bayne carries through what Billington referred to as cheerful chaos with a small, colourful replica Restoration stage in front of which various auditions, rehearsals and bits of plays-within-the-play take place.

I like this script: it’s clever and witty, poking fun at a host of sacred cows. Running two-and-a-half hours, it’s long but mostly succeeds in continuously entertaining.

In the play, King Charles, having had a tiff with his current mistress, goes off to the theatre where he expects to find “joy and gaiety”. And that’s what you’ll find at the Jericho Arts Centre until June 24. Nell Gwynn closes with the reprise of Nell’s song, “I can dance and I can sing/And I can do the other thing” with the entire ensemble singing, dancing, kicking up their heels: joy and gaiety in abundance.