THE curtain rises on a new play by Jeffrey Hatcher in Cardigan tomorrow (Thursday).

Mappa Mundi’s new production of The Compleat Female Stage Beauty will be performed at Theatr Mwldan from Thursday, September 26 to Saturday, September 28 at 7.30pm.

It is set in the theatre-world of London shortly after the return to power of the monarchy in 1660. The Restoration of Charles II, following decades of puritan austerity, was a time of new-found confidence, exuberance, innovation and change.

It was in this period that London’s theatres, boarded up and silent during Cromwell’s regime, were reopened to great public acclaim. Against the background of London’s theatres, brothels and parks, this wonderfully funny but poignant play explores the life of one individual – Ned Kynaston, the best-known and most beloved actor of the age, famous for being the most beautiful woman on the English stage.

For Ned, the ‘stage beauty’ of the title was an actor who specialised in female roles, in the tradition of Shakespeare’s day. But in 1662 Charles II, with his penchant for the ladies and following the French fashion, allowed women onto the stage for the first time. With the birth of ‘the actress’, Kynaston’s career was threatened and a great theatrical tradition came to an end.

Jeffrey Hatcher’s bold and witty drama is based on Kynaston’s true story and is populated with well-known figures from one of history’s most beloved eras: the diary-scribbling Samuel Pepys, the Merry Monarch Charles II and ‘pretty witty’ Nell Gwynn, the Dury Lane orange-seller made good.

Tickets cost are £13 (£11) and are available from Theatr Mwldan's Box Office on 01239 621200, online at www.mwldan.co.uk, or via smartphones by visiting mwldan.ticketsolve.com/mobile