HERE’S a Herculean challenge facing a casting director; find an actress who can play a character ‘so beautiful men would kill for her.’

Find an actress so talented she can play this creature who is ferocious, defiant and proud, but who becomes deranged after she spurned by her lover, who’s ready to kill for another gorgeous creature.

And on top of that the actress has to convey the complex angularity of a woman who’s boldness is unquestionable, yet is reduced to withering self-blame.

It’s just as well there are performers out there such as Lucianne McEvoy.

Lucianne, who attracted rave reviews last year for her performance in The Libertine at the Citz, stars at Oran Mor this week alongside another major talent in the Scottish theatre scene, Rebecca Rogers.

The pair appear in the Classic Cut, Andromaque. Jean Racine’s 17th century play, adapted By Frances Poet, takes place in the aftermath of the Trojan War.

But it’s the human heart which begins to beat louder than a thousand Trojan drums.

What we learn is that Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, is due to be married to Hermione, (Lucianne) and she loves him to bits. But he’s in love with Andromaque. But she s in love with a dead man while Orestes, son of Agamemnon, is in love with Hermione.

What follows is jealousy, anger, and death; all the delightfully wondrous elements of which Greek tragedy is constructed.

“The play follows on from the Trojan war which precedes the play; Hermione is the daughter of Helen who was used to instigate the battle,” explains Lucianne.

“It features the debate between Hermione and Andromaque, and the idea is we hear the point of view of the two women and their conflicting testimony.

“What Frances has done has taken all the air out of the Racine version and left this story of two women who are caught up in the fall-out in a world where they’ve been used as pawns and trophies by the men in the play.

“So as a result, Hermione and Andromaque are fierce and strong women, yet their victims in the sense of the patriarchal world they live in.”

“But the drama comes from the unrequited love cycle in the play.”

Wonderful. Nobody’s happy.

“As it should be,” says Lucianne, laughing.

The layers in the play are thick as bodies on a Trojan battlefield.

“These two women are very different. And as they give their testimony via monologues they are not aware of each other. But we learn when they clash they have things in common.”

Lucianne, who has appeared in a range of theatre productions in Scotland in powerful roles, stars alongside Rebecca Rogers.

It’s their second Greek tragedy, have worked together with Theatre Babel with Lucianne playing Antigone.

“It’s great to work with Rebecca again,” she enthuses. “ And it’s a great challenge for us. As our characters speak to the audience we’re constantly interrupted by the other voice.”

Lucianne’s voice in real life is South Dublin while Rebecca is from Northern Ireland.

The clash of accents, similar yet so far apart, fits in perfectly with the differences between the tribal stage characters.

Lucianne explains how she’s come to fit in perfectly with life in Scotland.

“My family originally came from Northern Ireland but left during the Troubles. We lived in South Dublin and I studied at Trinity College

“I left Ireland when I was about twenty and worked at the Old Vic In London and stayed for ten years.”

During that time, Lucianne met her husband an actor/director who is from Manchester, and together looked for a new (more affordable yet culturally envigorating) place to bring up a family. And they chose Glasgow.

“We had honeymooned in Scotland. We’d climbed Ben Nevis and we we love it here.

“And at the time I was offered the Oran Mor play,” she says. “It all worked out perfectly well.”

The last time Lucianne appeared at Oran Mor, as part of the South American season of plays, she was breast feeding her baby daughter, Grace.

“When I went in to do the technical run on the Monday morning after three hours sleep (the last chance to make sure all is working and well) I had to stop to make sure nothing appeared on my shirt during the performance.

“It wouldn’t have looked right this distraught lady questioning the disappearance of her partner with unexplained lactation on her top.”

Now, thankfully, she won’t have to think about lactation at all.

“I won’t she says, grinning. “But the challenge will be not to hear Rebecca and follow her in a Northern Irish accent.

“So I’ll be concentrating really hard.”

*Andromaque, Oran Mor, until Saturday.