This 106-minute drama screens on ABC1 on Sunday, 29 November 2009, at 8.35pm.
Restoration Theatre
London during the 1660s is brilliantly recreated with superb costumes, snappy dialogue, crude language, vulgarity and bawdy songs. Samuel Pepys (Hugh Bonneville) is on hand backstage as he takes notes for his diary. Life behind the scenes in Thomas Betterton’s theatre is sharply contrasted to the opulence of the royal court.
Edward “Ned” Kynaston (Billy Crudup) is a huge success playing female roles, especially Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello. Part of Kynaston’s appeal was his ambiguous sexuality. He was also the lover of George Villiers, the 2nd Duke of Buckingham (Ben Chaplin).
Royal theatre critic King Charles II (Rupert Everett) is bored with the same old actors in the same old tragedies. He wants surprises and plays jollied up, but no one takes up his suggestions.
Kynaston’s lovelorn young dresser, Maria (Claire Danes) causes a sensation when she takes on the role of Desdemona whilst secretly performing at a seedy tavern using a stage name and borrowing her employer’s costumes.
Charles II changes the law permitting women to perform on stage, after Pepys introduces Maria—alias Mrs Margaret Hughes—to the King, his saucy mistress Nell Gwynn (Zoe Tapper) and First Minister Sir Edward Hyde (Edward Fox) who vehemently objects. In Stage Beauty, Gwynn is an aspiring actress who persuades “Charlie” to change the law.
The obese, sleazy Sir Charles Sedley (Richard Griffiths) offers to become her patron. He is an obviously disgusting character who is at loggerheads with Kynaston.
Actor Thomas Betterton (Tom Wilkinson) fires Ned after he offends Nell. Ned becomes a virtual nobody, virtually overnight, when he is no longer one of London’s most desirable females. His lover, Buckingham, abandons him in favour of a wealthy bride, Lady Jane Bellamy (Isabella Calthorpe). He is destined for obscurity, performing burlesque in a music hall until Maria, now a rising star, helps Ned to reinvent himself.
The Real Nell Gwynn
Stage Beauty contains several historical inaccuracies, but this disclaimer was added in the final credits: “While this motion picture is loosely based on historical events certain characters have been changed, composited or invented and a number of incidents fictionalised.”
Nell Gwynn, began her acting career in 1664, less than a year after she was employed as an orange girl. Drama did not suit Gwynn so she moved into comedy roles one year later, where she became a huge success.
Buckingham became Nell’s unofficial manager in late 1667. He hoped to displace his cousin Barbara Palmer as Charles II’s principal mistress, and failed.
Charles II did not take an interest in Gwynn until April 1668 when their affair began. She had two sons by Charles II: Charles, the 1st Duke of St Albans [1670-1726], and James [1671-1680].
Credits
Stage Beauty was directed by Richard Eyre and written by screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher.
Filming locations in London included the Greenwich Royal Naval College and Hampton Court Palace.
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