Park Lafontaine's Calixa-Lavallée Theatre provides a setting for a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining afternoon courtesy of Persephone Productions. Its performance of Playhouse Creatures, a Canadian debut directed by Gabrielle Soskin, ran from September 11th to the 16th, and can be highly recommended on many levels.

Playhouse Creatures, written in 1993 by April De Angelis for England's Sphinx touring company, is set in a seventeenth-century London playhouse. It allows us a glimpse into the lives of the first English actresses as they battle for respect and a chance to prove themselves in the world of theatre. The play itself focuses on the lives of five women who, in addition to trying to come to terms with the hardships of the stage, are struggling with their own personal conflicts. Poverty, jealousy, rivalry and growing old are but a few of the issues that Doll Common, Nell Gwynn, Mrs. Farley. Mrs. Betterton and Mrs. Marshall must face. Simultaneously, they must also deal with the fact that, as independent as they were for their time, they will always be at the beck and call of male superiors. De Angelis' use of historical references, late seventeenth-century British slang and brief excerpts from plays such as Anthony and Cleopatra add depth to the already insightful plot.

As a female quintet, Dawn Lambert, Lisa Morneau, Stephenie Youlande Farrell, Elissa Bernstein and Anana Rydvald constitute an amazing cast. All show phenomenal talent and have mastered the tone of the play very well. However, the true star of Playhouse Creatures is the talented Lisa Morneau whose wit and charm brought tears of laughter to the eyes of many in the enthralled audience. Portraying Nell Gwynn, a poor young girl who until her theatrical premiere had spent most of her life as a London street rat, Morneau was both hilariously funny and tragically sad. She depicted the crude and corrupted girl incredibly well, and brought spirit to the Calixa-Lavallée Theatre.

A simple stage set is cleverly exploited to represent various indoor and outdoor settings, relying mainly upon ingenious lighting tactics to differentiate the whereabouts of the actresses. At no point in the play is the curtain lowered for scenery changes; to create a new setting for the next act, the five women manage to completely alter the ambiance by using only a few props on the stage: very inventive!

The relatively small auditorium enhances the actresses' ability to reach out to the audience, and the cast's entrances from the sides of the theatre rather than the wings of the stage only add to the originality of the production. The costumes are magnificent; petticoats, boots and hairstyles reminiscent of the Renaissance are true to the era of the play.

Both a tragedy and a comedy, Playhouse Creatures truly captures the essence of five courageous women, "pioneers" in the battle to be seen and heard on a male-dominated stage. An inventive production in the intimate setting of the Calixa-Lavallée Theatre makes this play sparkle amidst the beautiful landscaping of Montreal-East's Lafontaine Park.