"Queen Anne" by Helen Edmundson.

Nottingham Lace Market Theatre.

The play tells the story of Queen Anne and her close friend Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, exploring their relationship as Anne prepares to take the throne and in the early years of her reign.

Princess Anne has been plagued by ill health all her life and, despite 17 pregnancies, has produced no heirs with her husband, Prince George of Denmark. The union of King William III and Anne’s sister Queen Mary was also childless, leaving Anne in succession for the throne.

Anne’s advisors seek to influence the seemingly meek and vulnerable Anne. Sarah Churchill, her friend since childhood, is granted key positions in the Royal Household and seeks to advise, and manipulate Anne to further her own political agenda and career as well as that of her husband, the Duke of Marlborough.

Anne begins to understand her power as she becomes increasingly involved and informed in political matters. Sarah pushes the Whig agenda that supports her husband’s wars, but Anne is drawn to advisors who share her religious views and support a strong monarchy. As a result, her friendship with Sarah starts to unravel and Anne begins to find new allies.

Michelle Smith plays Queen Anne, and what a feisty woman on and off the throne she was! Then again when you take into account her medical issues, you can understand why. A powerful performance, not only vocally, as there's quite a bit of shouting, but also physically. Anne's costumes look as if they may not be the easiest to move around in, but Michelle did it all in style.

Abigail Hill is played by Dani Wain. Abigail is related to Sarah as well as Harley and manages to secure herself a job via Sarah with Anne, as her personal maid, and that is where the jealousy starts to set in with Sarah.

Tamzin Grayson-Gaunt plays Sarah Churchill, and here is another powerhouse of a performance as the sparks start to fly between the childhood friends, Anne and Sarah. You can feel the mercury rising within Sarah and when she blows, she really lets rip. To try and rescue the relationship and Sarah's political foothold, she decides to lower herself to dirty tactics, but will it work?

This play is a real ensemble piece with the remaining cast consisting of Alistair Hudson (Prince George of Denmark and Dr John Radcliffe), James Whitby (Robert Harley MP), Matthew Huntbach (John Churchill), Jonathan Cleaver (Sidney Godolphin), Bernard Whelan (King William III,  John Arbuthnot and the Archbishop of Canterbury), Ruben Whitter (Jonathan Swift), Micha Damola (Daniel Defoe and Colonel Masham), Mark Gadsby (Arthur Maynwaring MP and the Priest), Michelle Arscott (Lady-in-waiting and Jezebel), Melika Reza (Lady-in-Waiting as well as Judith) and last but by no means least Sam Howitt (Jack Churchill and the Palace Groom).

Guy Evans is the Director as well as the Set Designer. What I really enjoyed about this staging is that there was never a moment when there was no-one on stage; as one actor or group of actors exited, the next scene was on before the previous actors had vacated and that really made for a smooth transition from scene to scene as well as visually keeping the audience's attention throughout. The set design was simple with swathes of regal coloured material creating a royal backdrop. we did not need anything else because the story carried everything we needed to know about placement. Sometimes less is more and here, that was the case.

A great deal of additional work has been put into this production to get everything as accurate as possible. This is done with the help of Steven Scott Kaye, who is a former footman to HM Queen Elizabeth II, on Royal Etiquette, Aaron Connolly is the Singing Tutor, and Paul Cook has been drafted in to look after the Late 17th Century Deportment.

Nick Gale is on Lighting Design and the Lighting Assistant is Allan Green. Again, a simple design and as I mentioned previously, a simple design option can be better, leaving the "lights down" to indicate the end of the acts. For an audience member, when I say these designs are simple, this is in no way a dumbing down of the talents of the designers.

The Sound Design is by Gareth Morris, who is also the Stage Manager for this production, and Sound Assistant is Jordan Gibb. Simplicity runs throughout the technical side of this production, and the subtle effects for stuff like the fireworks scene drift throughout sounding completely natural in their unobtrusive placements.

As you'd expect, the costumes were fantastic, as were the wigs and the make-up, and the actors who have to wear some of them deserve their dressing gowns and onesies - do people still wear them nowadays? - and their after-show tipple just for having to don them.

I'll admit at this stage that I'm not a massive fan of historical dramas, but the story is so good and the acting so passionate, that I did really get into this, and found the end of the play arriving before I realised that we had reached it.

"Queen Anne" is reigning at the Nottingham Lace Market Theatre until Saturday 18 June.