A CLASSIC tale of love, honour and passion is being brought to life in a new production at the Lowry next week.

Northern Broadsides will be staging Cyrano - a new adaption of the story of Cyrano de Bergerac by Deborah McAndrew.

Taking on the challenge of a classic play is something which Deborah has relished.

"The story of Cyrano de Bergerac is something I’ve always known and loved and I was really happy when it was my turn to have a go with it,” she said.

Since appearing on our TV screens as young designer Angie Freeman in Coronation Street, Deborah has become one of the country’s leading playwrights.

Her adaption of the Tenants of Wildfell Hall is currently running at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, and her play An August Bank Holiday Lark won the best new play award at the UK Theatre Awards.

“When you are adapting an existing play the first things to take into account are the practicalities,” she said. “I knew I was writing for around a dozen actors yet you could have 40 characters in the original play. There are groups of people and dozens of nuns and you have to address the practical issues of what you do with that.

“Also, the thing you shouldn’t do is change everything. When you come across a line you wished you had written yo don’t do anything with it.”

Deborah has made Cyrano both deeply moving and also extremely funny in parts. and audiences have loved the show.

“There’s always a subjectivity around what people are seeing in a show,” she said. “Half a dozen people told me what Cyrano was about and the all told me something different.”

Deborah believes that her background in the theatre has helped her when it comes to adapting works.

“When I was an actor I always saw the bigger picture,” she said. “Some people are wholly actors which often makes them better than me but they will see the play from their character’s point of view.

“As an actor I never did that. I always saw my place as a cog in the big machine. That was my writer’s head.

“But when I’m writing, the actor comes and sits with me and tells me whether lines are say-able or not. It also helps me understand what it feels like being somebody else so that no characters sound the same. I think that one of the great privileges of doing what I do is that I get to live other people’s lives.

“That’s what kids get to do in the playground but as we get older we grow out of it and lose that freedom and imagination.”

Cyrano, the Lowry, Salford Quays, Tuesday, April 18 to Saturday, April 22. Details from 0843 208 6000 or www.thelowry.com