EXIT THE ACTRESS

Parmar’s innovative blend of fact and fiction will delight listeners as Charlotte Parry narrates actress Nell Gwyn’s life story. Told though faux journal entries, gazette gossip columns, playbills, letters between principal players, and assorted remedies gathered from a popular physician’s handbook of the period, the story is further enlivened by Parry’s enthusiasm. From oyster seller to orange girl, from actress to king’s mistress—the charismatic Nell is a charmer with a quick wit and a mischievous nature. Parry’s high-spirited performance rings with truth in a spun-sugar confection that combines court politics, intrigue, and scandal with a look at the backstage machinations of seventeenth- century theater. An irresistible narrator makes listening a treat as this spunky heroine takes center stage. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2011]