Hi there! Last year, my friend Claire Hobson had planned for a day of history talks to coincide with the 360th anniversary of the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660 with King Charles II. This event was also going to be a fundraiser for the charity, Mind, for mental health. Unfortunately, shortly before we were going to… Read on
1. Nell experimented with cross-dressing. Between 1663 and 1667 she posed under the name “William Nell” and adopted a false beard. The disguise stood her in good stead when she needed to act as a man on the stage in March 1667, and we know from Pepys’ diary that he found her performance the best he’d ever seen. 2.… Read on
Entertaining Mr Pepys is the third and final chapter of Deborah Swift’s trilogy on that most famous naval administrator/diarist of the late seventeenth century: Samuel Pepys. That said, it can be read as a standalone work – although I read the first book in the series, I wasn’t able to read the second one, but that did not… Read on
I hope you all enjoyed our first selection for the 17th-Century Book Club, which was William Wycherley’s play, The Country Wife! This was the second time I read the play, and I wish I could have performed in it. I would like to apologise to you all for not having the forum up-and-running as I said I would, but… Read on
The 313th anniversary of the death of the major seventeenth-century Restoration dramatist and first Poet Laureate, John Dryden, occurred recently on the 1st of May (1700). I felt quite bad about neglecting such an event, so here’s my little homage to Dryden’s work: King David, from “Absalom and Achitophel”: In pious times, ere priestcraft did begin, Before polygamy… Read on
Stage Beauty, is a film from 2004 which starred Claire Danes as the first actress, Margaret Hughes, and Billy Crudup, as Ned Kynaston. The film is based on the play, “Compleat Female Stage Beauty” by Jeffrey Hatcher. Ned Kynaston is a shining star of Restoration-era drama, and his over-feminine portrayal of Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello is popular. He relishes his female… Read on