Fiona Wass and Nicholas Lane have played married couples before, but never for real. Until now, she tells Steve Pratt.

FIONA Wass and Nicholas Lane were last seen on stage at York Theatre Royal as a married couple in the comedy Dead Funny. Next month they'll be playing husband and wife for real after getting married.

Before that, Lane is directing Wass and co-star Eamonn Fleming in a revival of John Godber's comedy April In Paris in the Studio theatre.

The couple met when Wass first worked for Godber's Hull Truck theatre company in a production called, aptly enough, It Started With A Kiss. Their stage marriage in Dead Funny was not a happy one, and coincidentally, April In Paris is also about a married couple, Al and Bet, who win a holiday in the French capital.

"It's not so much a failing marriage as the fact that Al doesn't work, he's been made redundant, and they get on each other's nerves at home," explains Chesterfield-born Wass. "The trip to Paris kind of brings them closer together. You couldn't call it a love story exactly, more the story of their married relationship."

Coincidentally, April In Paris and Dead Funny were both nominated in the same category in the same year for Olivier awards.

She saw Hull Truck's recent production of the Godber play, directed by the author himself, and has appeared with Fleming in another of his two-handers, September In The Rain. That toured nationally last year. "I love doing John's work. I feel really at home with it because I've done quite a lot," she says.

Much of her work as a professional actress has been with Hull Truck. "None of my family are actors or anything," she says. "I'd always been interested in acting right from being a little girl at school. I was interested in English and things like that. I wanted to pursue acting or art. My mum and dad were both teachers so they wanted me to go into teaching. I went to university to do an English and drama degree but dropped out after a year because I wanted to go to drama school."

She left in 1996, did a bit of touring, a spell at Sheffield Crucible and a few bits of TV in series like Heartbeat. Then she got her first job with Hull Truck and has been with the company more or less since then. "Acting is so random. You get the work where you can. I suppose I've been quite lucky to work continuously since I left drama school, something which a lot of people don't do," says Wass.

Her roles have included touring in another Godber play, Teechers, as well as playing Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's play and in Frankenstein (in an adaptation by her future husband).

* April In Paris is in the Studio at York Theatre Royal until August 3 (no performances Sundays and Mondays) at 7.45pm. Matinees 2.45pm on July 20, 27 and August 1. Tickets (01904) 623568.