A comedy drama set in the seedily glamorous world of 17th-century London theatre. John Shank is an actor, talent-scout and trainer of boy players in the 1630s, when women's roles are still played by precocious boys. Up to his eyes in debt, Shank's only hope of escaping destitution is an unpromising 14-year-old would-be, Stephen Hammerton. Can he train up Stephen to be the new star of the London stage? Nicholas Wright's play Cressida was first performed at the Albery Theatre, London, in 2000, in a production by the Almeida Theatre.