ELEANOR Roosevelt’s goddaughter, Headley woman Wanda Rix, will be among the members of the audience at Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre watching Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London next week.

Ms Rix, goddaughter of Eleanor Roosevelt, said she was “overjoyed” to be taking her family to watch the one-woman portrayal of Mrs Roosevelt and reflect on a part of her personal history.

“My grandparents became very friendly with the Roosevelts when my grandfather was The Times correspondent in Washington in the 1920s and worked for the Foreign Office in the 1930s,” Ms Rix said. “When I arrived in New York as a baby in 1936, they asked Mrs Roosevelt if she would be my godmother.

“In 1938 I moved to England and lived with my grandparents but Mrs Roosevelt still came to visit us as often as she could.

“The only visit I remember clearly was the one in 1946, when I realised there was something very special about this lady.”

Ms Rix previously saw Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London, written and performed by Alison Skilbeck, when it was at the King’s Head Theatre in Islington, London, last year. “When I saw Alison Skilbeck’s brilliant performance it was as though Mrs Roosevelt had come back to life: my godmother, there on the stage, dressed exactly as I remember her when she told my grandparents about her many amazing projects, with hardly time to draw breath,” she added.

“I am so delighted to have the chance to take some of my family with me to see this incredible performance, again, at the Yvonne Arnaud.”

Ms Skilbeck, who was granted special permission by the Roosevelt Estate to use Eleanor’s writings as a foundation for her play, describes the moment she met Mrs Roosevelt’s goddaughter Ms Rix: “After the last night of my run the King’s Head Theatre, in the Saturday night fever of the bar, a charming lady was waiting for me and, above the din, said: ‘I was Eleanor’s goddaughter.’ Although she had only consciously met Eleanor Roosevelt once, as a 10 year old, she had photos and remembered the close friendship her own grandparents had with the Roosevelts, in the US in the 1920s and 1930s.” 

Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London will be at the Guildford theatre from March 3-5. To book, call the box office on 01483 440000 or visit yvonne-arnaud.co.uk.