Gwen ffrangçon-Davies / Marda Vanne Company

Founded by Gwen ffrangçon-Davies and Marda Vanne when ffrangçon-Davies came to South Africa South Africa in 1941, they toured the country with a number of fine productions and presented seasons of plays during the war years at the Standard Theatre till 1946. The company utlized performers who were to become household names, including Siegfried Mynhardt, Wensley Pithey, Rolf Lefebvre, Zoë Randall, Alec Bell, Le Roux Smith le Roux, Ivy Collins, Noel Hewitt, Margaret Inglis, Jessie Bryant and Sidney James.

The plays performed included Barrie’s Quality Street (1941), Twelfth Night (1941), Flare Path, What Every Woman Knows, Milestones, Lilian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine (1943), Coward's Blithe Spirit (1944), Merry Wives of Windsor (1945), Emlyn Williams's The Wind of Heaven (1946) and Turgenev's  A Month in the Country (1946), which was their last performance before they went back to England.

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