April de Angelis: 'It's still unusual to have women centre stage'

April de Angelis has had a dynamic as a writer and librettist, with credits including Wild East at the National Theatre, After Electra at the Tricycle Theatre and Playhouse Creatures, which debuted at Theatre Royal Haymarket in 1993 and has been revived at the Old Vic and Chichester Festival Theatre. She also contributed to Theatre503's festival responding to sexual harassment last month, and her new adaptation of Frankenstein will open at the Royal Exchange in Manchester next month.

Playhouse Creatures is now being revived again at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Based on the lives of five of the first women to ever tread the boards of an English stage in the 17th century, the show's all-female cast reflect on issues of gender and equality in both theatre and wider society.

We did a rapid-fire 90-second interview with de Angelis to find out more about the production.

Playhouse Creatures runs at the New Vic theatre until 24 February.