QUEEN ANNE Theatre Royal, Haymarket

History plays about royalty have always been popular. Corruption and intrigue are good for the box-office. Helen Edmundson’s Queen Anne concentrates on the sickly Queen’s disintegrating friendship with Duchess of Marlborough who behaves very badly. The gossiping Court and the satirists Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe also have a field day at Anne’s expense with their crude, vulgar songs and pamphlets. Emma Cunniffe is excellent as Anne; but the play is a chronicle of events rather than a lively drama.