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THE COMPLEAT FEMALE STAGE BEAUTY
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by Jeffrey Hatcher
Directed by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
presented by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Limited
At Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Friday 18 October.
Mappa Mundi’s new production The Compleat Female Stage Beauty is set in the theatre-world of London shortly after the return to power of the monarchy in 1660. The Restoration of Charles II, following decades of puritan austerity, was a time of new-found confidence and exuberance, a period of innovation and change. The Compleat Female Stage Beauty will be performed at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Friday 18 October at 7.30pm.
It was in this period that London’s theatres, boarded up and silent during Cromwell’s regime, were reopened to great public acclaim. Against the background of London’s theatres, brothels and parks, this wonderfully funny but poignant play explores the life of one individual – Ned Kynaston, the best-known and most beloved actor of the age, famous for being the most beautiful woman on the English stage.
For Edward Kynaston, the ‘stage beauty’ of the title was an actor who specialised in female roles, in the tradition of Shakespeare’s day. But in 1662 Charles II, with his penchant for the ladies and following the French fashion, allowed women onto the stage for the first time. With the birth of ‘the actress’, Kynaston’s career was threatened and a great theatrical tradition came to an end.
Jeffrey Hatcher’s bold and witty drama (a Restoration comedy in its own right) is based on Kynaston’s true story and is populated with well-known figures from one of history’s most beloved eras: the diaryscribbling Samuel Pepys, the Merry Monarch Charles II and ‘pretty witty’ Nell Gwynn, the Dury Lane orange-seller made good. Hatcher has produced a brilliant historical comedy, packed with period detail, but as alive and fresh and modern as though it were set today.
“After dinner took me to the Cockpitt play, the first that I have had time to see since my coming from sea, where one Kynaston, a boy, acted the Duke’s sister, but made the loveliest lady that ever I saw in my life…” Samuel Pepys, 18th August 1660
The Compleat Female Stage Beauty tours England and Wales from September to December 2013.
Tickets at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Friday 18 October at 7.30pm are £14 (£13). Call Aberystwyth Arts Centre’s Box Office on 01970 62 32 32 or go online www.aber.ac.uk/artscentre to
book.
Suitable for ages 16 +
Supported by the Welsh Assembly Government and the Arts Council of Wales through the National Performing Arts Touring scheme.
Ar daith yng Nghymru yn fel rhan o gynllun Celfyddydau Perfformio Teithiol Cenedlaethol, wedi ei noddi’n rhannol gan Gyngor Celfyddydau Cymru a Llywodraeth Cymru. |
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Tuesday, October 1, 2013 |
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