Boredom, passion, betrayal and murder – all are close to the heart of Bryony Lavery's plot in the New Vic's bodice-ripping thriller The Wicked Lady, writes Tamzin Hindmarch.

LADY Barbara Skelton is a beautiful, wayward, aristocratic daughter for whom life could be very easy.

But when she is forced into a respectable marriage and finds herself trapped in a life of monotony, she rebels to extremes.

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Turning to crime, she sets out on a secret and saucy life as a highwayman, and before long neither gambling, nor robbery, or murder are beyond her realms.

She is, however, playing a very dangerous game, and as she rampages through the countryside on horseback, her enemies are on her trail.

Two years in the making, the New Vic Theatre will tonight be presenting a world première stage adaptation of Magdalen King-Hall's pistol-wielding adventure – first brought to the public's attention as a novel and then as the 1945 film starring Margaret Lockwood in the lead role and James Mason as her lover, Captain Jerry Jackson.

To add to the spectacle, former tiger tamer and aerial performance expert Vicki Amedume has even been brought in to teach cast members how to perform the play in mid-air, dangling on silks and harnesses from the Basford theatre's rafters.

Bryony Lavery, no stranger to the New Vic and the scriptwriter for this groundbreaking piece of theatre, says: "Our heroine is both mistress of her own destiny and victim of time and circumstance – that's the great struggle of the piece."

Of the female at the centre of this affair, Lady Skelton, Bryony adds: "I loved creating her from the book. Anyone who is at an age to have ever encountered Margaret Lockwood in the film will know she is pretty wicked anyway, but I think ours is even worse. And there's a great deal of satisfaction to be had in watching a character go to the bad, but it's even more fun to see a woman go to the bad.

"Just when you think she has gone her length, she goes even further.

"That's what my mother thought I should have on my tombstone: 'Bryony went too far'."

To prove the point, cast in the leading lady role is Roísín Gallagher, who is involved in a sex scene with Marcello Walton, who plays Jerry, which will prove you don't have to be a plane passenger to join the notorious mile-high club.

Having spent months learning the ropes in workshops with her co-stars, Vicki, and the New Vic's creative team, the 22-year-old professionally-trained actress from Belfast says: "It's so much different to anything I've done before – with characters like Hero in Much Ado About Nothing or Jessica in The Merchant Of Venice. I've gone from parts like Cinderella in panto to playing this woman who has so much depth to her that there are so many things to think about when you are playing her."

While the vast majority of frustrated females are unlikely ever to resort to anything more criminal than tucking into that second piece of chocolate, according to Roísín, they will still find a few of her feelings all too familiar.

"Some people may be under the impression that she is an evil villain, but that is not all there is to her," Roísín explains.

"We find out that she is someone who lost her mother when she was 14 and was very angry about it. She was probably very mothered and their relationship was very strong.

"From this, we realise that perhaps she is just wanting to feel that sense of love again."

The Wicked Lady can be seen at the New Vic Theatre in Basford from tonight until Saturday, July 25. Tickets cost between £8.50 and £17.50, and can be bought from the box office on 01782 717962.

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