Brian Beacom

HANNAH Donaldson laughs as she suggests every actress’s worst nightmare.

“It’s when you open a script and you see your character’s name and the directions say ‘And she’s dressed head-to-toe in latex and wearing killer heals’.

“Now, you just know that’s going to be uncomfortable and a diet is called for.”

Hannah isn’t wearing the PVC outfit in this week’s Oran Mor play, World Domination.

But her co-star Louise Ludgate (“Who I have to say looks sensational in latex”) is.

Regardless of who has (gets) to wear the rubber, the outfit is integral to Lesley Hart’s story line, which features two sisters, Karen (Louise) and Anne (Hannah.)

“The sisters have been estranged,” says Hannah of the play, set in Aberdeen.

“We discover they haven’t seen each other for years but in their time apart they’ve both had lots to deal with.”

That’s an understatement. Their lives have spiralled in entirely the wrong direction.

“They’ve both had to deal with demons but neither is willing to admit this,which is common when people just meet up again.

“We learn m Anne, has struggled with addiction for years and now she’s come home to reconnect with her family.”

All through Anne’s life she’s been able to depend on her big sensible sister.

But Karen has her own issues.

“This is why we find ourselves in a dominatrix dungeon,” says Hannah.

“We learn that Karen has lost her job and as a result she’s trying to preserve the nice life she had for years.”

The theme of the play is survival, the lengths to which someone will go to protect their family.

But it’s also about the dynamic between the sisters, the surprising roles they’ve come to play in life.

It’s sensible Karen who’s had to utilise talents she never knew she had.

“Yes, it’s a lovely contrast. It’s now Anne who has to care for her sister.”

Hannah couldn’t really not have become an actress. Growing up in Newport near Dundee she went to school in St Andrews but attended Scottish Youth Theatre.

Early on she revealed the need for the peripatetic life.

“I felt awkward as a teenager. I got five Highers but I had a very short attention span. I wanted out, I was desperate to get on with life and get a flat in Dundee.

“Then the travelling bug hit. I travelled around Spain and then my dad decided I should go to college, which I did. (She attended the RSAMD.”

“But I’m still messing about. Still playing.”

Since leaving drama college Hannah has worked in a range of theatre roles such as starring in Sunset Song.

She has appeared in a couple of previous Oran Mor lunchtime plays, Happy Hour and Yellow Wallpaper.

But her recent work experience highlights how colourful and changing an actor’s life can be.

“I was in China with Vanishing Point with a production of Tomorrow and it was fantastic,” she says.

“And prior to that I worked on a schools tour with NTS and Catherine Wheels, Martha.

“I did almost every constituency in Scotland, all from the back of a van, for three and a half months.”

When not working, Hannah has been remodelling the new flat she shares with actor partner Ryan Fletcher, in Glasgow’s south side.

“Let’s just say Ryan is a better actor than he is at DIY,” she says, grinning.

“But we’re getting there. A room a year.”

Hannah reveals has a younger sister.

“She’s a nurse, she’s the sensible one and she has a beautiful two year-old,” she offers, then adds, laughing; “I didn’t draw the parallels until you asked if I had a sister. But now I see them.

“Yes, she’s the sensible one, the backbone of the NHS, while I’m getting up there on stage playing around.

“But while I’ve had to do jobs outside of acting to pay the bills I’ve never been a dominatrix.”

• World Domination, Oran Mor, until Saturday.