GINA Bellman reckons to be a victim of the actor's syndrome known as The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side.

"Whatever I'm doing, I want to be doing something else, doing TV when I want to be doing theatre and vice versa," she says.

The remedy is to do exactly what Gina is doing. As soon as she finished recording the latest series of BBC2 Monday night sitcom Coupling - she plays drippy Jane - she was heading north to begin rehearsals for Neil Monaghan's new play, Beautiful People, at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

So, for now, it is theatre's turn to be greener.

"I enjoy the freedom of this life, of having the day free during the production run, and the camaraderie of performing each night, and I also like that thing of theatre work being very detailed," says Gina, who acquired overnight fame in the title role in Dennis Potter's frank Blackeyes in 1989.

Edward Kemp's premiere of Beautiful People, a story of power, greed and lack of morality, brings Gina to Scarborough for the first time and marks another first: her debut in a theatre in-the-round.

"Having come straight from Coupling it hasn't thrown me, as I haven't come from working on a proscenium stage," says Gina. "It's been a year since I did a play, and that was Speed The Plow at the Duke of York's in the West End.

"When we moved into the theatre for the first time last week, what struck me was how intimate the Round is. I'm really looking forward to seeing faces in there."

Those "faces" arrived last night for the opening of Beautiful People, a play that finds playwright Monaghan moving up a gear from the lunchtime slots for Dot.com in 1998 and Bolt From The Blue, part of the Stephen Joseph's 10 By 10 season in 1998.

Monaghan observes a world of beautiful people living beautiful lives. Glamorous, sexy and confident, their lifestyles are matched by their wealth, but scrape the surface and they belong to a jealous and ruthless demi- monde. One risk too many, and everything could go pear shaped.

"It's interesting to put on a piece like this in the North. The characters are the kind I come across in London: elite, arty-farty media types, who would go to the opening of an envelope and do their shopping in Bond Street, but what's interesting is that each of them in this play is having a crisis; they're all looking to change their lives, to have more substantial relationships. They're all in some way lost," says Gina.

"As an actress, the fascinating thing is meeting people like this when they're at a fragile point, falling apart in private, as opposed to seeing them in public, putting on a face, being arch and manipulative."

Gina plays JJ, trouble in glamorous form. "I do tend to be cast as confident women, and JJ is a sort of manipulator of men who's involved in a folie a deux: one of those destructive relationships where both are involved in illegal insider trading."

An exciting character in JJ, and an exciting acting opportunity too, but where will Gina look next for greener grass? "I think you always take something from your last experience, and through doing Coupling I'm really enjoying doing comedy, and I'd like to do something lightly stylised, like a Restoration comedy, but then I really like new writing too."

Just maybe, the grass is greener on both sides.

Beautiful People, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until November 9. Box office: 01904 370541.

Updated: 08:45 Friday, October 11, 2002