Phoebe's sword to a new level for musketeers role

But think again, because playing the very key role of Milady de Winter is the very companionable Phoebe Soteriades.

Last seen in a seductive pose atop a table in Tartuffe, she's looking forward to tackling the new challenges that Musketeers offers.

"The stage is huge and absolutely mad," she enthuses. "They're building something that's almost like a huge children's playground with different levels and stairs and ladders and ropes and holes in the middle, so you can come down on the bottom and it all links up to allow you to get around the auditorium!

"There are trap doors to go underneath and then pop out. Just trying to remember where we are supposed to be is so hard."

The entire cast have also found themselves learning a lot about fight staging - including the wielding of some rather old-fashioned weapons.

"The fight rehearsals are just a whole other ballgame and the fight director is absolutely brilliant," says Phoebe.

"We've all got swords and, in some of the scenes, people will be using trays and sausages. Whatever's to hand, any old weapons - it's a free for all!

"It's a huge spectacle. It is a real boy's show, a boy's own story you can imagine. The actors playing the Musketeers are absolutely huge, and when they are all on together, especially singing - Chris has done some beautiful music for it - it's like a local rugby club. There will be quite a bit of singing, with two or three group songs and quite a few solos. I don't have to sing, thank goodness. I'm a bit too much of a cut-throat baddie for that."

Is this role just as meaty as her previous one?

"Absolutely. In the book originally, the character was married to Athos, who was really the big love of her life, but then Athos discovered her fleur de lis and realised she was branded as a whore and a robber. Then he disappeared out of her life and she came back as a baddie - which can be read as because she was scorned.

"She strings along all the men, and she's playing them all, seducing them all left, right and centre, but actually her heart is still with Athos. She doesn't really fall in love with anyone else. In this version, the writers have put in that she has a soft spot for D'Artagnan, but I think that's a little bit of creative thinking!"

Is she the sole female in the production?

"No - there are a few of us, and we're all sort of on all the time. Kate Doherty - a Haymarket regular is playing five or six different roles so it's not male-doinated at all, it just has an old fashioned sensibility."

How was the rehearsal period for such an elaborate production?

"It was very intensive - in this show we're all in, all the time. If you're not a main character, or not actually speaking in a scene, Alasdair Ramsay, director has you there peopling it, filling the scene as a vagabond or a person in Paris, or a flunkie at the court. We also had to have dance sessions, quite courtly dancing, which was so difficult. You're trying to remember lines as the stage revolves and you're also thinking about where your feet should be. Sometimes we're all in masks - logistically, it's just a total nightmare to work out!"

Phoebe has been acting for about eight years now, after training at Middlesex University. When she left, she, along with a group of friends, set up her own theatrical company in order to get the showcasing which she missed out on from not having attended drama school.

Now, as a jobbing actor, she often finds herself in all areas of the country in any number of productions. So, why Basingstoke?

"I auditioned at the Haymarket at the beginning of the summer, along with hundreds of other people, for the four plays and Alasdair took a long time to decide exactly who would be suitable for what and who worked well together and saw people again.

" I wasn't worried about coming to a smaller place because I knew I would be busy and people were all working towards the same goal. It's also really commutable - it's so easy to get back to London."

And for Phoebe, it appears that the idea of a French season was very alluring.

"I have always done one-off plays before, and never a whole season on a theme. It was that which swung it for me. Occasionally you meet people and think 'God, we've really clicked - it would be so good to go on and do another show'. That rarely happens, but it has happened here which has made this so appealing. If you've cast well - and Alasdair has done - you get a good mix and it's lovely to think we're continuing to the next play."

Next she'll be seen in Therese Raquin in a very different role indeed. "It's very dark but brilliant, and will work well as a foil coming off The Three Musketeers, a nice contrast".

She adds: "I actually never really had a plan. Some actors do have that where they think 'I just want to do television' or whatever. I knew I loved theatre. TV is great but I just don't think it is as rewarding. There's none of the immediate confirmation from an audience of whether or not you're doing anything wrong."

Her husband, whom she met while starring in a production, is also an actor. Is it hard to find time together when they are working?

"If we time it right, he's away during the week and we will both get back on a Sunday. But you don't have the time to do anything except collapse. You just end up going to the cinema every weekend, so it's a bit hilarious.

"If you're not careful you can end up talking shop a lot of the time but it is really good to have a de-brief and find out what he's thinking. When you're away, you don't have the normal friends and family around you to sound off on.

"When you're performing away from home, there's all that with being miles away when things go wrong and you can't do anything about it. You come back and go 'my boiler's broken' or 'my roof's leaking' and you can't sort it. Stupid things like that are very annoying."

Phoebe Soteriades is starring in The Three Musketeers at the Haymarket Theatre from now until January 10, 2004. Tickets are available from the box office on 01256 465566.