The Restoration of Nell Gwyn review – a sensitive reconsideration of a misconstrued figure

“How am I to be remembered?” wonders Nell Gwyn at the close of Steve Trafford’s new biographical drama. “With a low-cut dress and basket of oranges,” might be the popular response; though Trafford’s sympathetic portrait seeks to establish an image of the king’s mistress that extends beyond the whiff of citrus and scandal.

The year is 1685: Charles II is on his deathbed and Nell is in a flutter. With the aid of that most essential Restoration stage prop – a fan – she is able to demonstrate the full range of flutters at her disposal. There is the modest flutter (a coy stroking of the unextended instrument); the merry flutter (rapid movement like a butterfly’s wing) and the amorous flutter (similar to the merry flutter though slower and with greater amplitude).

As Pepys’s approving diary report of “pretty, witty Nell” suggests, Gwyn’s progress from pit to stage to royal bedchamber seems to have been based on intuitive intelligence and a genuine talent for comedy. Elizabeth Mansfield’s caustic, cockney Nell has the manners of a costermonger, but tempers her ambition with a winning sense of self-awareness. She expresses contempt for the king’s lazy-eyed French mistress Lousie de Kérouaille by dubbing her “the Lady Squintabella”; though when challenged to explain the difference between them responds “I am the protestant whore”.

It’s not often you find yourself wondering if a two-person show might have been more effectively conceived as a monologue; and though Angela Curran’s contribution as Nell’s serving maid is personable enough, the evening is predominately carried by Mansfield, who picks up a baroque guitar to accompany herself in airs by Henry Purcell. It’s a fine ironic touch that the soothing balm of Music for a While should underscore the description of a suppurating plague sore; though Trafford’s play presents a sensitive reconsideration of a misconstrued figure which barely mentions oranges at all.