NICOLE Cooper’s mind, you would imagine, could be set to explode like King Lear’s temper at any moment.

The actress is currently starring in Love’s Labour’s Lost as part of the Bard in the Botanics annual outdoor Shakespeare festival in Glasgow.

But she’s also rehearsing for the next production, the Merchant of Venice.

One minute Nicole is the witty, charming lady-in-waiting Rosaline but then has to leap into the mind of the disturbed Portia in Merchant.

On top of that, Nicole has three young daughters (18 months, six and eight) to look after, and make sure her husband’s hairdressing business remains trim and tidy.

How in the name of Will Shakespeare does she cope?

“Well, it’s all about trying to find a balance,” says the former RSAMD student, smiling.

“I've been quite lucky with the plays in that Rosaline, who I play during the day, is fun. She sits back and watches and makes the odd wicked comment.

“And when I come to rehearse Portia at night there is no confusion in my mind because she's such a different character.

“She’s a creature who’s trapped in a bird cage that is Belmont and her father is determining who she should marry. And so she has to cope with constant rejection.

“The challenge for me is to show the trauma she’s feeling, to let it all out during rehearsals, yet still manage to remain me.”

Nicole adds, grinning; “Believe me, you don’t really feel like a drink at the end of the night, or chatting to friends, which is what you should do.”

The demands of performing in one play and rehearsing the next are ‘exhausting’.

“It’s difficult in terms of stamina,” says the actress. “You have to call up the energy.”

Nicole has been appearing in Bard at the Botanics for seven years ago. And the demands of the job are certainly nothing new.

“A few years ago I played Helen in Midsummer Night’s and during the day we did Hamlet and I played Ophelia.

“That was really tough. Ophelia is of course driven mad by grief and you have to reveal lots of tears. And I give all that out in rehearsals. I can’t hold it back.”

|Performance - then rehearsals. Then there’s the three kids to look after.

“Yes, fortunately I have my parents with me at the moment, and they’re giving me a hand with the kids,” she says, smiling.

“But I wouldn’t not want to be working. I think I want to be a role model of sorts for the girls.

“It’s not that they don’t have their dad to look up to. He works really hard. But for some reason I want to show them a woman can work - and be a mother.

“And they’ve been able to see me work. The girls come to rehearsals with me. The oldest one even helps me with my lines. I want them to know I’m an actress.”

Nicole’s mum is Zambian and her dad is Greek. She grew up in Zambia and moved to London to study where she met her future husband, Scott, who comes from Glasgow.

Then Nicolle and Scott decided they wanted to live in Glasgow.

“When we began going out Scott took me to Loch Lomond and, it sounds incredible, but he literally showed me the stars and I was so taken aback.

“I wasn’t used to seeing them in smoggy, dirty London. And I loved the idea of living in Scotland.”

Nicole moved north, studied, and worked in a range of TV and theatre projects.

“After the second baby was four months old I went back to work.”

She adds; “I love being part of something here in Glasgow. I never felt like that in London. Zambia is in my heart but Scotland is my home.”

Nicole teamed up with Bard in the Botanics producer Gordon Cooper and they’ve formed a regular partnership.

“I love Shakespeare. I love acting,” she says. “I love the chance to play someone like Portia, to work out what’s in her head and put it all out there. I’m happiest when I’m working."

Portia, on the face of it, has it all, the material wealth in the world, a rich, intelligent beautiful heiress. But is she a poignant example of how we don’t get it all in life, and what we want doesn’t come easily?

“That’s so true,” says Nicole, grinning.

“Portia at one point says to Nerissa ‘My little body is weary of this world.’ And that line really highlights how you don’t get it all.

“I know what she means because while I love acting, and getting these great roles, there are days when I feel guilty because I’m not home till midnight."

Nicole adds in soft voice. “And I do miss my little baby. But you have to try and do it all.”

• Love Labour’s Lost, until July 11.

• The Merchant of Venice, July 16 – August 1.