Playhouse Creatures

‘Playhouse Creatures’ is a bawdy but well-researched and beautifully scripted play, based on a 350-year tale. It was written twenty years ago by a 30-year old English dramatist, April de Angelis, and is now being brought to life by HIVE (Her Infinite Variety Ensemble) for Class Act Theatre. The play is being presented at the new Guild Studio, 123 Claisebrook Road, at the corner of Claisebrook and Somerville (near Claisebrook Train Station), East Perth.

This daring and highly entertaining play is showing nightly, Tuesday to Saturday, until 8^th June. The two-hour performances start at 8.00 pm, except for Saturdays when the performance is at 5.00 pm.

It is 1669 and after years of Puritanical rule, the theatres are reopened by Charles II (The Restoration) and the female impersonators are replaced by real, live women, but can a woman ever be as good as the impersonator? What will become those who are not good enough? Like the performing bears referred to throughout the play; de Angelis's metaphor uses the parallel of human creatures initiating pleasure for others at the expense of your own comfort and happiness. 

      The Playhouse is a Restoration theatre that has become a comfortable den of the Court and the upper middle-classes; although it is still known locally as the ‘Chamber of Hell’ or the 'nether region'. Much of the action takes place in the colourful 'tiring room' (short for attiring room) or women's dressing room - strewn with dresses and props (stage managed by Shirley van Sanden).

      In the dark dressing room, sits the ghost of old Doll Common (Claire Munday), who was never an actress but is a fictional character created by Ben Jonson in ‘The Alchemist’. Doll reveals to us the glory of the past, mingled with terrible tales of how her father was the bear keeper for the bear pit. Over the years Doll Common, Nell’s nemesis, has cleverly developed the ability to change her persona to blend with her surroundings and the company that she keeps. Although deep inside she is still a street dweller skilfully mocking those around her.

       A show has just finished and the performers, singing their way off the stage, flock into the tiring room. They are led by the posh, aging diva, Mary Betterton (Angelique Malcolm) who, despite her light-hearted jesting and authoritative voice, knows that she has lost her customer appeal. Along with her husband, Mary is a producer of the shows and when asked for wages, gives a reply that still rings true hundreds of years later, ‘There is no money in show business – just satisfaction’.

      The new 16-year-old girl, Nell Gwyn (Rhoda Lopez) already with memories of poverty and misery has, through determination, aspiration and good luck, started to climb the social scale. She learns from Elizabeth Farley that there is a permanent job going at the theatre across the road, so, beating her to the post Nell soon finds her way to Charles II's bed; only to find herself in a possibly more difficult situation of having to act and speak like an aristocrat. 

      Sadly, Elizabeth Farley (Tiffany Barton) who has been pushing the censor limits, has her career ended by pregnancy. Then her friend, Rebecca Marshall (Summer Williams), who at the time of the Restoration would have been about 13, is conned and practically raped by a sexually demanding courtier. Again, the bestiality of the men is compared to the bear heard growling in the background. 

      What kind of future do these women have in the new world of female acting?

De Angelis has created five very different, but richly written, personalities. The cast, who were made up with the traditional thick white, highly poisonous lead oxide face makeup, were often hard to recognise.

Director, Helen Doig, has a full understanding of these often pathetic, complex characters. She has guided the cast superbly, having them use their fans to show moods, this being accompanied with a hilarious body language and deportment lesson from Angelique Malcolm. The script is extremely coarse, bawdy and funny with the comedy being fully exploited by the gallant cast. The fantastic actors truly capturing the warm, insincere smile and purring vocal intonation of the actresses, desperate to get any scrap of money they can to survive.

There are tragic moments then you find yourself squirming at the events taking place, such as Doll’s description of her father’s job and again with Lizzie Farley’s unwanted problem - Tiffany Barton was wonderful as the destitute performer pleading her case. Rhoda Lopez and Summer Williams gave the fun-filled, lighter side to this semi-documentary.

On occasions we get glimpses through the girls’ thin veneer to an often a frail, insecure and rapidly aging character within. The performances were all faultless and outstanding, with Claire Munday truly magnificent as old Doll.

The venue is the ground floor office of the Actors’ Equity Building, and what a superb little 45-seat theatre this is. Even with the low ceiling, the lighting effects were excellent. The voices carried well.

This is not simply a show of ‘merry mammaries’, there are many hidden threads and metaphors referring to the hard life the women are living, all perfectly captured by the brave and bold cast. A tremendous blend of hilarity and tragedy, one minute you are wiping the tears of laughter, the next tears for the hopelessness of the situation.

A fresh and unusual play acted by some of Perth’s finest. A MUST see.