Exclusive:Caroline Quentin: Jonathan Creek star to perform in Chekov play in Edinburgh seen 'through Scottish lens'

The Men Behaving Badly and Jonathan Creek star is to perform in Anton Chekov’s The Seagull at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh next season in the first show for new artistic director James Brining.

She said she was looking forward to playing in a “proper” theatre in Edinburgh, decades after her “first real successes as an actor” on the Fringe.

Ms Quentin said: “This production of The Seagull is the realisation of so many dreams. I have wanted to play Arkadina since I was in a production playing Masha nearly 40 years ago.

“The city of Edinburgh gave me my first real successes as an actor, on the Fringe with An Evening with Gary Lineker, Trench Kiss and Live Bed Show, all by Arthur Smith, and this year I finally get to play in a ‘proper’ theatre and they don't come any more beautiful and prestigious than the Lyceum.”

Mr Brining, who recently moved back to Scotland after a stint at the Leeds Playhouse, said the play, which will be performed from October 9 to November 1, had been carefully selected as his first performance.

Ms Quentin will take takes on the pivotal role of Arkadina, a once-celebrated actress who dominates every room she enters. Her son, the tormented young playwright Konstantin, yearns to escape her shadow, revolutionise theatre and win the heart of Nina - a luminous young woman with dreams of the stage. But when Nina’s gaze turns to Arkadina’s lover, the celebrated writer Trigorin, egos and passions collide with truly devastating consequences.

Mr Brining said The Seagull would “still be Russian” and have “Russian references”, but “through a Scottish lens”.

He said: “The play is an examination of theatre itself, which is why it felt like such a perfect introduction for myself as a director in this new role. It felt like a playful choice, in some respects, for my first show, to do something that actually centres, to an extent, on what we're actually doing here, making theatre.”

Mr Brining added: “One of the reasons I was really keen to come back to Scotland to work in the Lyceum was the opportunity to make that kind of work.”

During his time in Leeds, Mr Brining said he had commissioned a range of “substantial musicals and opera”.

“I've loved doing that and I want to continue to do that kind of work,” he said. “But what keen to do over time when I'm here is to make a diverse range of work in order to appeal to a diverse audience. At the Lyceum, I’ve got the opportunity to do the great plays as well, and The Seagull is exactly that. It is the kind of play we should be doing. It's an option for the Edinburgh audience to reengage in that play or maybe see it for the first time.”

The artistic director added: “Meeting Scottish actors to be in it, some of them, I know from when I was here before, and some of whom are new to me - all of them have been very excited by the opportunity to play that material in Edinburgh in their own voice.”