The UK premiere of a new play by Lena Farugia.
Directed by Peter Cregeen.
Designed by Alex Marker.
Presented by Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre
Cast: Nichola McAuliffe and Patrick Ryecart.
Olivier Award winner Nichola McAuliffe and Patrick Ryecart star in the UK premiere of a new play about one of the most extraordinary and moving love stories of all time
Tuesday, 3 February – Saturday, 14 March 2009
Tuesday to Saturday Evenings at 7.30pm. Sunday Matinees at 3.00pm. Saturday Matinees at 3.00pm (from 14 February).
Tickets £13, £9 concessions, except Tuesday Evenings £9 all seats, and Saturday evenings £13 all seats.
Previews (3 and 4 February) £9 all seats.
Performance Length: Approximately 2 hours.
Full booking information here
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"A woman with a history from a nation without one"
Paris in the 1980's. Dazed by prescription medication, a frail old American lady is a prisoner in a grey imposing mansion on the Bois de Boulogne. She was once the most famous woman in the world. Her name is Wallis, Duchess of Windsor. Her crime was to be a divorced woman who fell in love with a member of the British Royal family – the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII – precipitating his abdication from the throne to marry for love: the greatest crisis ever to befall the House of Windsor and a grave threat to the British Constitution itself.
Ten years after his death, attended only by a shadowy butler, we find Wallis in a twilight world where her beloved "David" has never really left her. As she refuses to relinquish the vivid memories of her extraordinary past, we soon discover why the incarceration of this vibrant and stylish woman is so vital to those whose lives she changed so dramatically. Her past is too full, the damage to her husband's family too great, her ostracisation too complete for her to be anything other than a dangerously loose cannon…
A stylish witty yet haunting new play on one of the most extraordinary and moving love stories of all time, set in the mansion which was visited on the very day of her untimely death by another woman to marry into the House of Windsor – Diana, Princess of Wales.
Nichola McAuliffe returns to the Finborough Theatre after her acclaimed performance in Nicholas de Jongh’s Plague Over England. Her many other credits include The Mikado, The Night of the Iguana, Black Comedy and The Real Inspector Hound (all West End), her Olivier Award winning performance in Kiss Me Kate (Royal Shakespeare Company) and seven series’ of Granada TV’s Surgical Spirit. She was also nominated for an Olivier award for her performance in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (London Palladium), and received a Manchester Evening News Award for The Wild Duck (Peter Hall Company).
Patrick Ryecart is a familiar face on both television and film, from Shaw, Sheridan and Shakespeare to Doctor Who, Silas Marner and Poirot, The Professionals to The High Life. His West End theatre credits include The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthasar B, Another Country, Candida, High Society, Just Like That, A Letter of Resignation, Ring Round the Moon, See You Next Tuesday, That Good Night, The Importance and the National Theatre production of The Rivals.
Playwright Lena Farugia is a filmmaker, writer and actress. Her work as a filmmaker includes producing and editing the film of the award winning Saturday Night at the Palace, starring John Kani, one of the first anti-apartheid feature films made in South Africa. She has written and directed numerous documentaries on South African issues including the internationally released Faith in Resistance and Brothers Sisters and Strangers, as well as working on television productions with internationally renowned satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys. As an actress, she has extensive stage experience in South Africa, and been seen internationally in the films The Gods Must be Crazy II, The Sandgrass People and Les Diamonds du President. Untitled is her first play.
Director Peter Cregeen’s theatre credits include Richard III, Antony and Cleopatra, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Comus (Ludlow Festival), Under Milk Wood, Alfie, She Stoops to Conquer, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, and Rookery Nook (Salisbury Playhouse), as well as working as Production Director for Stoll Moss Theatres. He has also been responsible for many of the most popular television drama series at both ITV – and the BBC where he was Head of Drama Series. TV as Director or Producer has included Total Eclipse, A Trip to Scarborough, The Choir, Midsomer Murders, Measure for Measure, Casualty, Mr Palfrey at Westminster and The Bill. He is also Chairman of the Actors Centre and Jerusalem Productions and on the board of Tara Arts.
Alex Marker is Resident Designer of the Finborough Theatre where his acclaimed designs have included Soldiers, Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ , Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams, Albert’s Boy, Lark Rise To Candleford, Red Night, The Representative, Eden’s Empire, Love Child, Little Madam, Plague Over England, Hangover Square, and Sons of York. www.alexmarker.com
The Press on the South African world premiere production of Untitled
“Farugia’s perceptive writing is stunningly evocative…Extremely clever in the writing, with some bitchy turns of phrase that could do justice to a Noël Coward” The Star, Johannesburg
“Throwing light on many of the darker corners of the somewhat suppressed and often misrepresented history…Elegant, richly entertaining production that should not be missed.” The Citizen, Johannesburg
“A gem-studded play.” Business Day, Johannesburg
“Bitterness there is but it is spiced with so much humour, so many interesting observations – and revelations – that the play avoids any potholes of self-pity. In fact, it is theatrically brilliant...the remarkable story of a remarkable woman. It makes for remarkable theatre.” Sunday Star, Johannesburg
