Ruth Connell

Published Thursday 13 April 2006 at 11:00

Ruth Connell is midway through a triumvirate of Scottish productions. She started off her third year after graduating from Rose Bruford with a production of Men Should Weep, which started its national tour at the Glasgow Citizens last autumn.

She will be returning to the Citz in May for Jeremy Raison’s production of No Mean City.

For the moment, the one-time dancer who became an actor “because I had too much to say” is staring in the twin roles of Gretchen and Helen of Troy in John Clifford’s adaptation of Faust Parts One and Two, directed by Mark Thomson at the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh.

“It is an actor’s dream to be able to show your range,” she says of the roles. “The chance to do both is incredible because the two parts are such a contrast. I was a bit daunted by Helen of Troy to be honest but I think it is probably quite normal to be daunted by that.”

Ruth, from Bonnybridge, outside Falkirk in Scotland, is returning to the Lyceum. It was here that she was a chorus member in 1999 production of The Anatomist while attempting to get an audition for drama college.

“Being here as a wee extra when I was auditioning felt like a big thing,” she says “So it was a always big ambition of mine to come back to the Lyceum.”