AN actress who once close to hitting the big time comes to Malvern Theatres to portray the tragic heroine in the Duchess of Malfi.

After three years off stage, Janet McTeer returned to perform under the direction of Phyllida Lloyd with the National Theatre's contemporary re-staging of John Webster's classic tragedy.

After opening in London in January, the show is being brought to Malvern from Wednesday, March 25 to Saturday, March 29.

The 41-year-old actress looked like reaching big-star status in the mid to late-1990s, after winning Olivier and Tony awards for her role as Nora in A Doll's House, in the West End and then Broadway. She had previously gained recognition for her role in the popular ITV series The Governor.

After the Broadway run, McTeer stayed on to earn a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for her role in American indie film, Tumbleweeds. Turning down subsequent Hollywood offers, she returned to the UK and spent two years co-writing and starring in arthouse film, The Intended.

Set in 1924 at a Borneo trading station, the film is as dark in subject matter as is the Duchess.

She said: "It's about a group of people slowly outdoing each other. It's sex, death, God and madness."

Of her subsequent choice to return to the stage, she said: "I finished the film and it was time to go back into theatre."

In Duchess, McTeer has so far received good reviews as a widow in the prime of life who defies her meddling and possessive brothers. She decides to embark on a clandestine second marriage to her steward.

Horrors are inflicted on her when her siblings discover her secret, and in the stark production, McTeer is strapped into a chair, injected with drugs and forced to watch a film which represents her more nightmarish fears.

In Duchess Lorcan Cranitch plays the spy, Bosola. He performed alongside Patsy Palmer in TV's McCready and Daughter and as Sean Dillon in Ballykissangel.

Tickets are from £14 to £22 (students £8) from 01684 892277.