Untitled ** TNT

Wednesday 25th Feb

Although it might pass muster on the radio, South Africa based Lena Farugia’s biographical play lacks a sufficiently dramatic structure within which to tell us anything new about the final days – or, for that matter, the earlier ones - of Wallis Simpson, the socialite from Pennsylvania who won the heart of the heir to the throne and unintentionally cost him his crown. The double-divorcee became the Duchess of Windsor when Edward married her after his abdication in 1936, but she was never accepted by the Royal family or granted the title of “Her Royal Highness”, and the resentment shows.

Set in the decade before her death, with the now frail and reclusive Wallis in her eighties (and, apparently, knocking back the vodka as freely as spring water), this two hander shifts backwards and forwards in time as her fragile, confused mind wanders from the lonely present to the indulgent past, charting the development of her royal liaison.

Nichola McAuliffe has her work cut out injecting life into often mundane dialogue and quips which aren’t always as witty as they should be, whilst Patrick Ryecart offers decent support as the butler whom she casts in the role of her dead husband. But no matter how strong the acting, it takes more than a string of facts and snippets of conversation to make a play, and Farugia fails to do justice to one of the highest profile love affairs of the last century.

Finborough, Finborough Road, SW10 (0844 847 1652) to 14 March (£9-£13)