On 8 December 1660, crowds gathered on Vere Street, off Oxford Street in London, where the King’s Company was performing Othello. The night was cold and windy, the sky prepped for a storm. For the first time in the history of professional English theatre, a woman was taking to the stage.
“It must have felt extraordinary,” says Eve Pearson-Wright, from the husband-and-wife company Long Lane Theatre. Its new production, The Actress, explores the era. “These women – who have lived through the Puritan era – are suddenly witnessing one of their own, up there on stage, going toe to toe with the men.”
