LUCY Phelps is at present playing Octavia in Antony & Cleopatra for the Royal Shakespeare Company but the French and Spanish-speaking actress has another string to her theatrical bow.

She has translated Alexandra Badea's The Pulverised, the French/Romanian playwright's drama about escaping the rat race, overcoming distances and discovering new life, which runs at the York Theatre Royal Studio from tomorrow after premiering at London’s Arcola Theatre throughout May.

In this unsettling 90-minute portrait of globalisation’s far-reaching grip on our working lives, in a world where borders between work and life cease to exist, a quality assurance officer from France, a call-centre manager from Senegal, a factory worker from China and an engineer from Romania are all engaged in one struggle: the multinational conglomerate that employs them is trying to engulf their every waking moment.

Badea's play is being staged in a co-production by Changing Face, the Arcola and the Theatre Royal, directed by Andy Sava, a Romanian director who gained a first in English Literature at Durham University and trained at the York theatre, where she was involved in running the TakeOver festival.

"We met in York when she was an assistant director to Damian Cruden there and I was appearing in the autumn season in See How They Run and Can't Stand Up For Falling Down," recalls Lucy. "We had a couple of get-togethers in one of York's many pubs, discussing how we were concerned at the lack of opportunity for European theatre in Britain.

"Andy had been sent the play by a friend who said it would be good for her direct. She fell in love with it; I fell in love with it and we started approaching theatres to do it, and that's when Andy brought in Changing Face, and because of her connections with York, the Theatre Royal was incredibly supportive too, so we're so excited to be coming to York this week."

Lucy had read French and Spanish at Exeter University before studying drama at LAMDA for two years. "But I continued engaging in my interest with languages, as part of a translation group in London and through the international department at the Royal Court, as I wanted to marry my love of languages and theatre," she says.

Translating The Pulverised has given her that opportunity. "It was important for me to connect with Alex [the playwright], so before I translated the play I went back and forth to Paris, meeting her at the 'Amelie café' [the one in the Audrey Tautou film], where she told me what the play meant to her as a Romanian woman working in another language [French]," says Lucy.

"It was essential for me to understand what her drive was in wanting to write the play, as I wanted to present her best version in English rather than my version. Gaining Alex's trust and friendship over the past two years has been vital."

The Pulverised runs from tomorrow to June 10 at 7.45pm, plus 2.30pm Thursday and 2pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk