The Duchess, aka Wallis Simpson

David E. Kemp, a former drama professor at Queen’s University, is the
author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

Wallis Simpson was a twice-divorced American commoner whose relationship
with Edward VIII, the King of England, forced the king’s abdication in
1937. The couple married shortly after and lived in a kind of exile for
the rest of their lives.

In addition to the love story itself, this multifaceted play explores
the sense of outrage it provoked among members of the Royal Family and
an indignant populace (a popular ditty of the time went, “Hark the
herald angels sing, Wallis Simpson’s nicked our King”), the
couple’s flirtation with National Socialism, and their stylish and
indulgent post-abdication lifestyle. While Griffiths portrays Edward as
a somewhat pathetic figure, she clearly respects the woman who shook the
British establishment to its foundation.

The Duchess is an ambitious, bold, and wonderfully irreverent play—a
heady mix of history, fantastical biography, mythology, parody, and
broad political satire by one of Canada’s best-known playwrights, the
award-winning writer and actor Linda Griffiths.