Veteran actress Lena Farugia returns to the South African stage with her own show. She reprises her role as Mrs Wallis Simpson - the Duchess of Windsor, in We And Them - a play she wrote about her view of the British monarchy.
The production opens at the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square next week and is set to be a fresher take compared with the original South African run 10-15 years ago.
This revival has come about because of the play's successful six-week run at London's Finborough Theatre last year and there are plans under way for its US premiere next year.
It is re-staged by Christopher Weare (from The Mechanicals repertory theatre company in Cape Town), who shared the stage with Farugia in the original two- hander. She is now joined by her husband, Robert Davies.
Her excitement is easily traceable in her slight American accent when she speaks about doing the play again and acting with her husband.
"My husband hasn't acted in ages and this is our first time in theatre together," she giggles.
"We have worked together a lot of times as filmmakers, but we're having fun and it's a nice time to do it again. It's a historical play - it doesn't date. But we're doing it from a different angle, looking at things that happened post- Princess Diana. Some things have been taken out to keep up with present times."
The play's theme of propaganda is probably what makes it timeless. When dealing with famous subjects like the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, there are bound to be some misconceptions and the truth may not always be in black and white. This can be said of many other prominent figures in the media today.
"The play has a balanced view and the truth may be found in the middle. The prejudices in the show about the royal family are prejudices about other people, and that's what makes the play less historical and more human. The text touches buttons that are relevant today and will always be relevant as long as we are human," Farugia says.
She is an American born and bred in New York whose marriage to Davies, a South African filmmaker, brought her to South Africa. Many might remember her from her film appearances in local films like The Gods Must Be Crazy II and The Sandgrass People.
She has written and directed documentaries for the SABC such as An African in Paris, about the life of artist Gerard Sekoto, and Faith in Resistance on which she collaborated with Seth Mazibuko.
She wrote We and Them from an American perspective, well aware of the fact that Wallis Simpson was also an American woman who had found life and love in Britain.
"When I wrote it I had to be objective and I had many misconceptions. But that Simpson spent her last years as a woman alone living a reclusive life in a home in Paris, really interested me. And that has become the essence of the story - her fear of being old and alone. Everything she feared she got in the end. Universally the play is about ageing, and women feel physically vulnerable when it comes to this. But the Duchess was a witty and charming woman and she has given me some wonderful lines.
"This is a memory piece and a personal story," says Farugia.
There are talks of taking We and Them to Cape Town and those who catch it will be joining Ferugia's celebration of finding the piece again with the distance of time.
- We and Them opens at the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square on October 5.