BEING given the role of one of the most famous heroines in literature is something which actress Nadia Clifford doesn’t take lightly.

Next Saturday, Jane Eyre will open for the first time outside London at the Lowry with Nadia taking on what she admits is her dream role.

“Yes, I suppose I am a sort of Bronte mega fan, which is a bit embarrassing but I might as well admit it,” she laughed.

“Knowing the work of the Bronte sisters so well is a bit of a double-edged sword in a way. Translating your love for the printed work and then giving that character a voice to make it authentically your own is a real challenge.”

Manchester-born Nadia promises that the new co- production by the National Theatre will surprise diehard Bronte fans and newcomers to the work alike.

“I’ve never really done anything like it to be honest,” she said. “Physically, emotionally, vocally it’s amazingly overwhelming and I feel completely full. As an actor you really relish that but as a human being it’s pretty full on.

“It feels a little bit like a steam train has come toward me and I’ve just had to hold on.

“It’s a unique production and I have never worked this way before.

“There is the emotional nuance of theatre, the high drama of opera and the physical movement of really good contemporary dance and amazing music. It’s everything rolled into one.”

Given Nadia’s love for the Brontes her reaction when she discovered she had been given the part of Jane Eyre is perhaps understandable.

“We went through a really rigorous audition process and I’d given everything to it,” she said. “Then my agent called about 20 minutes after the audition and told me I’d got it.

“I was in the middle of Soho and I just screamed, I just let rip. People in the street were looking at me. There was this tiny northern woman apparently going mad in the street but it was just one of those moments you want to suck the marrow out of as you know you will never forget it.”

Nadia’s enthusiasm for bringing Jane Eyre to the stage shines through in our conversation but she readily admits it is a real test for her.

“When you love something so much you really want to honour it,” she said. “But the challenge for me is not to give myself too hard a time.

“The nerdy literary superfan part of me is fighting with the acting side of me.”

Although written nearly 130 years ago, Nadia believes Jane Eyre is a very much a modern heroine.

“A lot of people, even if they haven’t read the novel, have a pretty set idea of who Jane is, “ said Nadia, “They have this perception that it’s all bonnets and heaving bosoms but that’s so far away from what Charlotte Bronte intended.

“She wrote about a woman who is fiercely independent and I want to capture that spirit.

“Jane is a big, bold, warm character and I think that people lose sight of that when they think of this diminutive. softly spoken, odd looking, northern woman, that’s not who she is.

“She was massively subversive for the time. Charlotte Bronte really wrote a subversive manifesto about womanhood and what womanhood was all about.”

With the show opening at the Lowry, Nadia is expecting many of her family to come to the opening night.

“They are very excited about it,” said Nadia, who grew up in Fallowfield and went to school in Didsbury. “I’ve never performed at the Lowry and it’s a big auditorium, it’s certainly not small.”

Having worked at the National Theatre and in London, Nadia is particularly keen to bring Jane Eyre to northern audiences.

“They are not like any other,” she said. “After a show you might be having a drink and in London they will come up and say ‘well done’ whereas in the north they will come up and they will say ‘right, this is what I think about about it’ and then take you through scene by scene.

“I love the fact they are so unashamedly engaged in what they see. They really invest in what they are watching in way no other audience does.”

The production, directed by Sally Cookson, features specially composed music which plays an integral part in the production.

“It is very cinematic at times,” said Nadia. “Sally can take stories which are dear to people’s hearts and give it the Cookson treatment, taking it into a realm of imagination. It’s like the best game of make believe.”

Jane Eyre, the Lowry, Salford Quays, Saturday, April 8 to Saturday, April 15. Details from 0843 208 6000