YOU may not recall Jenni Maitland's debut performance at York Theatre Royal last July.

"I had a lot less to say last time. In fact nothing," recalls Jenni, who has returned to York to play the lead role of Catherine in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.

"Last summer I played an opera singer and a fat old cook, who just screamed and dropped a tray of buns at the end."

What did the opera singer do? "She had these huge fantastic wings and a turban and was just part of the scenery... quite an extravagant part. I had to mime her singing, trying not to be too much of a focus when you have a turban on your head," she says.

Small roles they may have been, but in her second year in the profession she was glad of the experience. "It makes it so much easier to take on the role of Catherine when you have got to know the theatre, the stage, and the city," Jenni says.

The repertory production of Northanger Abbey, which opens next week, reunites the Surrey actress with director Tim Luscombe, who directed her in Amadeus and in her drama-college days.

"I first worked with Tim at Central, where he directed me in Dangerous Liaisons in my last year. I played la Presidente de Tourvel, which was an incredible, heart-rending role to play... in a wig that looked like there was a family of gerbils on my head."

Tim Luscombe went on to direct Jenni - and fellow Northanger Abbey cast members Lexi Strauss and Morgan George - in Alan Ayckbourn's House & Garden double bill earlier this year. "Before Christmas, he had told me he was doing a new adaptation of Northanger Abbey and asked me to do the rehearsed reading at the Drill Hall in London and I thought it would be just for that reading," Jenni recalls.

"But then halfway through the rehearsals for House & Garden in January, he asked me to do the production in York, which was fantastic... especially as you never want to invest too much hope in getting a role."

Catherine, the Jane Austen character with an overactive imagination and zest for life in 18th century high-society Bath, is a peach of a role. "Oh, it's such a joyful part," says Jenni. "She's very excitable and a wonderful role to play because she's so feisty, so brave and so eager to learn. She's like a sponge, wanting to soak everything up, and while it's great to play a character who such spirit to her it's also exhausting because she so wants to consume life.

"I see the story as a journey from being a young girl to a woman..."

...How old are you, if it is not too rude to ask? "I'm 26, so yes, I have made that journey. However, it's also a journey from fantasy to reality as Catherine learns how to conduct herself as a woman without indulging in the vanities of the time."

You should enjoy meeting Catherine, and Jenni, from May 24 to June 12. Box office: 01904 623568.

Updated: 08:47 Friday, May 21, 2004