NELL GWYNN ‘Pressing the flesh at Theatre by the Lake’

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS on and Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake continues to build on its formidable reputation for producing and presenting highly entertaining drama, invariably to capacity audiences.

The latest offering Nell Gwynn, is no exception.

Where it potentially differs from its predecessors is that this is arguably the first time that a bawdy and very amusing romp through the Restoration has resulted in the audience showing more flesh than the actors. On the night I saw this tremendous production, Keswick was in the middle of a heatwave and large swathes of the audience had arrived in, how shall we say, their lightest summer attire.

While the cast was weighed down in many-layered costumes, stockings, waistcoats, and some extremely lengthy, luxurious, and curly wigs of various hues, much of the audience was naked in comparison.

Fortunately, the air conditioning in the theatre provided a welcome contrast to the fierce heat outside the building, a temperature that lasted well into the night. Heaven only knows what it would have been like had Nell Gwynn been produced in the old Blue Box building (the forerunner of today’s amazing theatre) on a night such as this.

Fans all round, passing out aplenty.

The theatre in the round format adopted for this 2026 production was all the better for ‘pressing the flesh’, for want of a better phrase. And while it meant that the cast – conscious of the need to face their audience at some point – had to adopt what I can only describe as ‘The Exorcist’ technique, swivelling heads on static shoulders and all that, the overall effect of the round was impressive, enhanced by the additional use of an up top theatre box to provide elevation for King Charles II (a charismatic Guy Woolf) on his visit to the theatre.

I loved Nell Gwynn because, for the most part, it was totally and utterly bonkers. 

Off the wall and occasionally bizarre, it was rich in colour and costume and riddled with double entendre one-liners that were very funny. Woven into the plot were various vignettes, for example, the character Edward Kynaston’s (a wonderfully usurped Stanton Wright) demonstration on how to use a fan to best effect in Restoration theatre, much arm waving, pointing, and posturing.

Wright was a star in his role.

The plot – firebrand, adorable and highly talented young woman (a marvellous Rose Shalloo as Nell Gwynn) from a lowly background, orange and oyster selling with a little Cheapside brothel on the side, makes the best use of her talents as an actress and ends up a mistress to the king – provided an ideal pike on which to stick a tremendously professional, slick and accomplished production.

Any messaging was largely lost on me; morals and mayhem rarely make good bedfellows. Which is not to say that some point making (lights out at the end, the finality of life/death) failed to get through.

All the cast were exceptional and some of the special effects (a cascade of yellow/orange petals in a stream of light) the ruby / purple luxuriousness of King Charles 11’s robe and crown under a spotlight, were relatively simple but visually enormous. The Restoration sound effects of London before the action began and at the interval were also telling in an understated way.

And what Nell Gwynn may have lacked in bodice ripping, the audience more than made up for on this hottest of summer evenings in tropical Keswick.

Next stop, The Tempest.

Nell Gwynn is a Theatre by the Lake, Shakespeare North Playhouse and Storyhouse Theatre production, and is being staged at Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake up to and including Saturday, August 1.

The writer of this review, Keith Richardson, is from Keswick and is a journalist and author of four award-winning Lakeland-themed books: Ivver Sen, Jack’s Yak, Josh, and The Greta. On very hot summer days, he may be found preparing wickets as a volunteer groundsman at Keswick CC in Fitz Park.