GABRIEL Quigley has a little bit of a head start when it comes to playing her latest role, Rose, who is a care worker.

"It's in my genetic code," says the Hamilton-born actress, grinning.

"My mother was a midwife and a lot of my cousins are nurses. In fact, there are at least 10 nurses in the family, so it's a world I know a lot about.

"And it wasn't hard to find a voice for my character. I just had to think of my grandmother and my mum. I've actually played a lot of nurses in my career."

Gabriel stars in this week's Oran Mor play, Between The Thinks Bubble And The Speech Balloon - the latest in its A Play, A Pie and A Pint series.

"It's a wee bit experimental," the actress reveals of the play which features writing by Liz Lochhead, William Letford, Grace Cleary and Henry Bell.

"It's a series of monologues pulled together by Liz Lochhead, who has constructed a structure around these stories.

"It tells the story of a writer, Mark, (Sandy Nelson) who's trying to write monologues for his course. And he takes inspiration from the characters at a bus stop.

"And as you can imagine, you get all sorts of characters at a Glasgow bus stop, from the young guy with his iPod on, to the man who simply stands and talks to everybody.

"The play is about humanity. And we get to hear the voices of people we don't often hear from. It's about new voices written by a clutch of new writers, and thanks to Liz it all comes together wonderfully."

And Rose certainly has a strong voice.

Gabriel explains: "Rose expresses the powerlessness of her position in the care home, about what happens round about her. It's very funny, and very sad at the same time.

"And of course nurses do have a really dry sense of humour. They have to in order to cope with the job. That's why I think nursing is a calling. It's hard work, you don't get paid a lot, and it's heartbreaking at times.

"My mum's experience sort of reveals what an incredible job it is. She worked really hard, did night shifts, the lot, but every working day was completely transcendental. It was a miraculous experience every day watching babies being born.

"And you have to wonder 'How do you come down from that?' I guess it's a bit like the experience of being on stage, which is really heightened, with the adrenalin rushing around."

Gabriel's mum didn't want any of her daughters to follow her into nursing.

"No, she figured the work was too hard. What she wanted was for us to enjoy some glamour in our working lives."

Gabriel, who has revealed a major talent for comedy in the likes of Still Game and Rab C Nesbitt, and produced a vast range of comedy voices on cult radio show Watson's Wind-Up, was a latecomer to acting.

Her epiphany came about while at Glasgow University, where she was studying English Literature.

"I think being able to do accents helped," she recalls. "When I was at school, Our Lady and St Francis Secondary in Glasgow's East End, we had a teacher with a strong northern English accent and I can remember taking her off."

While Gabriel's mum was delighted to see her daughter go into acting, she had to wait some time before she saw the glamorous side of acting

Gabriel seemed to land a succession of neds and junkies in those early days, a Taggart world of snot and despair.

"My mum and my dad came to see me in Trainspotting at the Traverse in Edinburgh," she recalls, "and the look on her face said it all. 'Well, I lived in Edinburgh for 20 years and I never saw anything like that!' she declared."

Thankfully, Gabriel's mum did get the chance to see her dress up on stage.

"She got to see me in Moliere's Tartuffe, and when she saw me in the beautiful frock she yelled 'Finally!' and she was so pleased. It was a fantastic moment."

There's little doubt that Gabriel's mum would have loved to see her play Rose. And even if Gabriel Quigley hadn't been brought up in a world of antiseptic and concern, she'd still produce a clinical performance.

n Between The Thinks Bubble And The Speech Balloon, Oran Mor, 1pm, until Saturday.