Lymington Players 
The Malt Theatre, Lymington
John Sivewright 
14 May 2026
Lymington Players are celebrating their 100th anniversary (a highly commendable achievement) in some style with a memorable offering of Nell Gwynn at the Malt Theatre. Jessica Swale’s Olivier Award-winning script is highly amusing, bawdy (some of the innuendo and physical humour wouldn’t have been out of place in an adult pantomime) and contains some delightful musical numbers – the piece is clearly a celebration of the theatre and a homage to their reopening under Charles II, when fun and frivolity were the order of the day, following the puritanical laws of Oliver Cromwell. Even when the play was at its coarsest, the audience weren’t fussed – we were all happy to go along for the ride!
I must confess to being fairly uneducated as British history goes (I didn’t pay enough attention at school, sadly), so much of the content was new on me – the story of the title character going from lady of the night to stage star, then to the King’s mistress and back treading the boards again was engaging and highly fascinating. The script perhaps ran out of juice towards the end of the second Act, but the company certainly didn’t; the energy and strong characterisations kept the audience captivated throughout.
All the players excelled themselves, but several are worth special mention. As Nell, Cherry McIntosh gave a feisty, spirited and fully three-dimensional performance, and her musical contributions packed a punch too; her rendition of ‘I can Dance and I can Sing’, cementing her stage stardom, brought the house down. Dave Woods was hugely impressive as Hart, commanding the stage and really convincing as the old ham that teaches Nell the ropes, and what a splendid baritone voice!
As a lecherous and mischievous King Charles II, Neil Brookes gave a highly accomplished performance, with impeccable comic timing; I expect his portrayal will live long in the memory of many of the punters. Bruce Gordon as the “leading lady” Kynaston, Adam Ogilvie as the scheming Arlington and Victoria Sandford as Nancy also impressed, the latter particularly in a spot of coarse acting reminiscent of ‘Noises Off’; playing a bad actor is never an easy task!
Also worthy of praise are Ruth Wagstaffe as the Queen and Sue Taylor as Louise, highly convincing in their Portuguese and French roles respectively. Ruth, in particular, was spitting fire in her scene, definitely not easy to do when not speaking in your first language!
The action of the play takes place over 25 scenes spanning several years, which was helpfully explained in the programme. The simple but well-designed set allowed for a variety of locations, while costumes from Eclectia were splendid and just right for the period. Lights and sound were unobtrusive, although the cast all coped well with the unexpected real-life peels of thunder from outside during Act One! Some nice flourishes helped to enhance the evening, notably front-of-house in period costume and a live musical performance during the interval, with every effort made to transport us back to 17th century England.
Director, Jim Lockwood, had long admired Nell Gwynn but been initially sceptical of whether the Players could pull it off. Well, he needn’t have worried, as Jim’s hard work, as well as that of the cast and crew, were vindicated. This production was a triumph for the Players and stands them in very good stead ahead of their next 100 years!
