The female pioneers who set the stage

Playhouse Creatures - Theatre Royal, Bath

- By Nancy Connolly

Playhouse Creatures is the story of the first female actors allowed on stage in British theatre.

Taking us back to the bawdy times of the early 1600s, it tells the story of the first five women in history allowed to grace the stage - in Shakespeare's time they were banned from appearing and had to disguise themselves as men.

Lavishly done, the set is beautiful and dark at the same time, like the stories of the women, sometimes tragic. It is all candlelight and candelabra, velvety and atmospheric, with haunting, Elizabethan music throughout.

The subject matter gives celebrated writer April De Angelis an opportunity to both inform and entertain with the sometimes alarming stories of these female pioneering actresses.

They are heckled, abused on stage, they are treated as sex objects by the largely male audiences, and actresses during this time were viewed as harlots or prostitutes.

The play allows us to see the interaction between the women back stage, hear their life stories, and it can be pretty hard to take in at times.