It has been 10 years since Lynne Adams last starred in her one-woman play, “Two Faced.” So when the Boston resident and upstate New York native opened the script back up to prepare for its Auburn run, she was pleasantly surprised.

“I was surprised about how much I (still) like it,” Adams said this week during an interview at the Auburn Public Theater. “I thought, hey this is good. ... I thought I was going to want to really update it, that it would be old and passe.”

But Adams said she wasn't trying to be self congratulatory. Not only did she write the play more than 15 years ago, it examines issues faced by women at an age she has passed. She was genuinely pleased that she could still relate to its message, though she still has a bit more perspective these days, she said.

“If I had written this for me now, I would have added a lot of aches and pains,” Adams said. “But with the issues like age, I can still relate to them perfectly well.”

The play will open its two-weekend stay in Auburn Friday at the Auburn Public Theater. Adams, who wrote “Two Faced,” has performed the piece in Albany, New York City and Los Angeles.

“Two Faced” tells the comedic story of Elizabeth Tivey, a middle-aged woman whose husband leaves her for a younger woman. Having given up a career in design for her family and admittedly letting herself go over the years, Elizabeth faces the challenge of re-entering a job market full of younger faces. All the while, she is struggling with her own image while weighing the advice of a new-age friend and a bit too modern daughter.

Known for her portrayal of Leslie Bauer in the daytime television show “The Guiding Light,” Adams has written numerous other plays and produced a film adaptation of “Two Faced” called “Made-Up.” Adams said she wrote the play after noticing how people treated her when she was not made up for the screen.

After her time with the soap opera, Adams moved to the country, stopped dying her hair and was not making herself up for the screen. She said it is “shocking” how much differently people treat you in cities like New York and Los Angeles when you are older looking.

“I can remember walking into one restaurant with gray hair and being completely ignored and then going into the same restaurant all dolled up and being treated completely different,” Adams said.

Angela Daddabbo, Auburn Public Theater's artistic director, said “Two Faced” had a profound effect on her when she first saw the play in the mid-1990s. She was living in Los Angeles at the time, and Daddabbo said she was impressed with the script's ability to tackle issues like beauty and age from a feminist perspective without making men the villains.

“(Adams) really was able to write it in such a way where she attacks the problems, not males or females,” Daddabbo said. “The men who watch it love it, in some ways, even more than the women.”

Daddabbo added that everyone struggles with finding their “authentic selves” as they mature. While the main character of “Two Faced” is a woman, she faces universal issues, she said.

“There is a whole part in the play where she talks about wearing masks, and playing roles in life and why do we do it,” Daddabbo said. “But we are only fooling ourselves. Often, the act of hiding is what really gives you away.”

Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net

If you go

What: “Two Faced”

Where: Auburn Public Theater, 108 Genesee St.

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 4, 5, 11 and 12; 3 p.m. Sunday, April 6 and 13

Cost: $15 general, $12 students and seniors, $10 each with groups of 10 or more

Info: Call 253-6669