THE restoration of Nell Gwyn has taken 20 years.

"The idea of doing this play started two decades ago," says actress Elizabeth Mansfield, whose Ensemble Theatre company is mounting a co-production with York Theatre Royal from tonight.

"But it really began to fire up 18 months ago. We had a sketchy first draft that we work-shopped at the Theatre Royal last year and then went back into the writing process again in January, February and March."

Written by Elizabeth's regular partner in theatre, Steve Trafford, the comedy drama The Restoration Of Nell Gwyn will transport the audience into the English Restoration, where King Charles II lies ill and Nell Gwyn, his royal whore and once the brightest star of the restoration theatre, rages against her fate.

Nell Gwyn remains a familiar figure, that woman with the ripe oranges, but such a clichéd image needs re-examining and what better time to do so than the 350th anniversary of Nell's first appearance on the English stage.

"It was Nell Gwyn in her time that was interesting, not that she still fascinates us now," says Elizabeth, who has played such notable entertainers as French chanteuse Edith Piaf and music hall star Marie Lloyd in the past.

"It is the notion that here was a woman born into prostitution – her mother was an alcoholic prostitute – so she was born in to the social poor at a time of political ferment after the English Civil War, but she became one of the great actresses or her age and then Charles II's mistress. She was a woman who was strong, clever and talented, with what should have incredibly limited opportunities but she had this drive to survive."

Trafford's play is a two-hander where Mansfield's Nell Gwyn is joined by the fictitious character of Margery, to be played by Angela Curran.

"We wanted a female character from the other side of the political divide at the time: her parents are Levellers and Quakers and from the north," says Elizabeth. "So that has been Margery's journey and in our fictional story, Nell has taken her in off the street , which was the kind of thing Nell was known to do as she was a generous woman, as has been well documented."

The play is set in 1685 and while it is an invention based on the iconic British figure, it is laced with historically accurate fact. The plot involves Nell donning a male "Breeches role" costume in a ruse to try and enter the King’s bedchamber and delight him into dubbing her "Countess of Greenwich". A vital guarantee, as Nell sees it, in securing her position and income, should the King die.

Hence the title of a play that Ensemble Theatre invited Theatre Royal artistic director Damian Cruden to direct.

"The title is a play on Restoration comedy, and there's also that notion of restoring a picture and revealing something that lies behind the surface," he says. "But whatever happens when Charles dies, there'll still be an accommodation rather than acceptance of Nell."

The Restoration Of Nell Gwyn runs at York Theatre Royal Studio from tonight until October 25. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk