STRATFORD theatre director Reg Mitchell has come up with a novel solution to a casting problem for his next play - he has cast a woman in a man's role.

Actress Sian Ellis, who has recently graduated from the E15 Theatre School, will play Sebastian, twin brother of Viola, in Falcon Productions' new production of Twelfth Night, which is being performed in Stratford later this month.

Reg came up with the idea of casting a woman in a man's role - the reverse of the situation in Shakespeare's time when men had to perform women's roles - after several weeks of searching without success for a young man to play opposite Natalie Danks-Smith's Viola.

"All the men who came forward were over six feet tall, and most had baritone voices. I know we have to suspend belief for the sake of the plot but even a myopic and half-deaf Olivia would never have been fooled into believing the two characters were the same person," said Reg.

The play, which will be performed in the garden of Hall's Croft, Old Town, Stratford from June 19 -23 and from June 26 -29, is to be set in the Edwardian period, when all the principal boys were in fact women who always ended up marrying the princess.

Sian, who lives in Banbury, said: "Sebastian wasn't exactly the part I would have chosen for myself but it is an exciting prospect for my first Shakespeare role outside college."

Tickets for the play cost £11 and are available from Hall's Croft reception on 01789 292107 or the Shakespeare Bookshop in Henley Street.