The Pocket Dream, York Theatre Royal, June 28 to July 17

LUCY Benjamin had a role to die for in EastEnders.

Remember how Lisa Fowler, Lucy's increasingly fiery wronged woman in the BBC soap, took out a contract on errant Phil Mitchell. Yet it was Lucy who ultimately suffered at the hands of a contract killing when the producers terminated a soap residency that had begun in 1999.

She would have been delighted to stay, no doubt with mother Lisa and baby Louise facing more crises in that jolly London manor of Albert Square. Yet as one door shut - or stayed ajar because Lisa has not been killed off - another opens.

Lucy is in York, being spotted in street and shop and Italian deli alike, as she rehearses for the Theatre Royal repertory production of The Pocket Dream, a play within a Shakespeare play by Elly Brewer and Sandi Toksvig.

Aside from playing Princess to Jim Davidson's Aladdin in pantomime in Southampton, this will be her first theatre show since leaving the Square last September. She has an ebullience about her that affirms she has put the EastEnders elbow behind her. "At the time you feel low about it but then you have to look at it positively and understand where they're coming from, and you should never think you're indispensable," she says.

"You have to understand that they get high ratings from getting rid of someone who's high profile. You have to respect that and be philosophical about it, and you have to move on as quickly as possible in your head and get over it. You have no mileage in being bitter and twisted and telling tales. That serves no purpose."

Lisa gave it her best shot, left on the best of terms and has moved on. "When you're in EastEnders you have to be dedicated to it, you have to make it your life or you'll fall at the first hurdle. So when I left it was important for me to take stock, get 'me' back again. Enjoy some leisure time, go on holiday, sort out my home," she says.

All roads have led to York Theatre Royal and The Pocket Dream. "The play had been sent to my agent; I'd had quite a few sent through to me and none had appealed to me but this did instantly," she recalls.

That said, she had initial doubts, not about the play itself but over whether she could handle the role. "Sandi Toksvig played my part in the original production and I didn't think I could live up to the comedy in the way that Sandi did it as she's a comedian," says Lucy.

"I read it, thought it was fantastic but wasn't sure it was for me, but my agent said 'That's for the director to decide. Go and meet him, tell him your fears'. I did, and Paul director Paul Clayton instantly said he wanted actors not comedians."

Once the role was offered... "I didn't have to think about it at all. I wanted it because I would be doing some comedy after all these years of anger and trauma in EastEnders. Then there was the challenge: it's all too easy to wait for the next telly role.

"Theatre is where I started, but I haven't done any serious theatre for nine years, not since I did PoW! for Paines Plough."

Selecting a play from all the scripts sent to her had been a "tough choice". "But the things I'd been offered were old stage pieces, Noel Coward period pieces. I wanted something to kick me up the bum, rather than be lazy - but that didn't take away the nerves about the first week of rehearsals. Don't even go there about the actual performances!"

Those performances will begin on Monday, when she can enjoy testing out the third reason why The Pocket Dream caught her imagination. "The script is so clever," she says.

Writers Brewer and Toksvig adapt The Pocket Dream for each theatre it plays. In this version, the Theatre Royal's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream hits problems when all but two members of the cast decamp to the Wonky Donkey pub. Feisty stage manager Jo - Lisa's role - ends up playing Hermia, Puck and Snout and has to fly across the stage (so Lisa really will be looking to hit the heights in York).

"I get to play Hermia in her big scene where she really goes for it. When she has to fight Helena, it's fab, really fab. We're playing that for real, which is great!" she says. "It's a very physical and fast-paced show."

Lisa did not do Shakespeare's play in her college days at Redroofs Theatre School, Maidenhead, where she studied from the age of nine to 18 under June Rose (the mother of York Theatre Royal's chief executive, Ludo Keston, incidentally).

At college, Lucy had trained primarily in musical theatre but she has relished the change of direction offered by The Pocket Dream. "On the day of driving up here from North London I was excited about embarking on a new project but also scared because it was a different genre and I would be working with different people, and I knew that having done EastEnders I would be under scrutiny," she says.

"But there's a freedom about going back to theatre as a training ground where you never stop learning, and it's given me the confidence to say that if it goes well, I can go on and do some classical work, maybe at the Regent's Park open-air theatre. I'm not putting TV down, but this is a chance to be more rounded on different levels."

There will be more television work too for an actress who first came to attention as graphic designer Julie Craig in four series of Press Gang. On September 11 and 18 she will be appearing in the opening episodes of a new series of Casualty. "I play a woman whose grandfather has been taken ill. She takes her two kids to hospital to see him and they get abducted with awful consequences," she says. "So that's a really high angst role again for the BBC!"

The Pocket Dream, York Theatre Royal, June 28 to July 17. Box office: 01904 623568.

:: DID YOU KNOW?

Lucy Benjamin will be directed by Paul Laidlaw, regular director of York Musical Theatre shows, when she plays Aladdin in Stevenage this winter.

Soap stars on stage in York

1 Martin Barrass, Emmerdale Farm.

Perennial comic stooge to Berwick Kaler in York Theatre Royal pantomime since 1984

2. Lynne McGranger, Irene in Home And Away.

Fairy Peapod, 1998-1999, Witch Blackweed, 2003-2004, both in Jack And The Beanstalk, Grand Opera House

3 Nigel Pivaro, Terry Duckworth in Coronation Street

Attempt To Kill, Theatre Royal, 1988; A Taste Of Honey, Theatre Royal, 1989; Steven Berkoff's Greek, York Arts Centre, 1993; slimy talent agent Ray Say, The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice, Grand Opera House, May 2000; fractious Judd, Bouncers, Grand Opera House, September 2003

4 Leslie Grantham, 'Dirty' Den Watts, EastEnders

Persecuted novelist Paul Sheldon in Misery, Grand Opera House, May 2002

5 Julie Goodyear, Bet Lynch, Coronation Street

Statuesque restaurateur Jacqueline, French accent et al, La Cage Aux Folles, Grand Opera House, February 2002

6 John Altman, Nick Cotton, EastEnders

Panto villain Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin Hood & The Babes In The Wood, Grand Opera House, 1996-1997; hard-nut doorman Lucky Eric in Bouncers, nursing broken wrist, September 2003

7 Paul Usher, wild card Barry Grant, Brookside

Playing his dues to the blues, Fibbers, January and April 1998

8 Kevin Kennedy, floppy-fringed Curly Watts, Coronation Street

Once in band with The Smiths' Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke, he showcased Present Kennedy solo album at Fibbers, July 2002

9 Anne Charleston, Madge, Neighbours

Aussie panto villain Queen Rat in Dick Whittington, Grand Opera House, 2001-2002

10 Husband and wife Stuart Wade and Tonicha Jeronimo, Biff and Linda Fowler in Emmerdale

Buttons and Cinderella, Cinderella, 2000-2001; Simple Simon and Fairy Peapod, Jack And The Beanstalk, 2003-2004, Grand Opera House

11 Amy Nuttall, Chloe in Emmerdale, and Suranne Jones, Karen McDonald in Coronation Street

Singing show numbers in Peter Karrie & Friends, Grand Opera House, November 2003

12 Gabrielle Glaister, Patricia Farnham in Brookside

Fractious fourtysomething Eleanor in Terry Johnson's dark comedy Dead Funny, Theatre Royal, September 1996

13 Paul Fox, Will Cairns in Emmerdale

Romeo in Romeo And Juliet, his Shakespeare debut, Theatre Royal, February 1999

14 Katherine Dow Blyton, mother-of-four Sally Hunter, Hollyoaks

Irresponsible mother Helen in A Taste Of Honey, Theatre Royal, March 2004, first stage role since Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Theatre Royal, November 2000

15. Lucy Benjamin, Lisa Fowler in EastEnders

Harassed stage manager Jo, The Pocket Dream, Theatre Royal, June 28 to July 17 2004-06-23

CH

Updated: 15:38 Thursday, June 24, 2004