Charity Wakefield, 27, seems breathlessly awestruck at the paths she is following.

But the difference is that whereas she deliberately chose not to see Ms Winslet's performance as Marianne Dashwood in the Jane Austen classic, she has constant reminders of Ms Hampshire's view of Somerset Maugham's play, The Circle.

When it was staged at Chichester in 1964, Ms Hampshire played Elizabeth, a young married woman tempted to embark on an affair.
Now she plays Elizabeth's mother-in-law, having to decide whether to encourage the elopement.

So, Charity, how does it feel to have the senior actress watching her every move in rehearsals?

'Terrifying,' she laughs. 'But no, she's the most lovely actress I've worked with, unbelievably generous and quite awe-inspiringly wonderful.
'I was a bit nervous on the first day of rehearsals but if there are scenes I can't immediately key into, I can ask someone who has played the part.'

Charity says Elizabeth's story - 'over-ridingly' about the conflict between love and duty - is quite universal although the play was written in 1921 and involves the gentry.

She makes the point that only the privileged had the wealth and education to be able to write at that time, and people tend to write about what they know.

'It was difficult to run away with someone you love when you stand to lose your entire way of life, and Maugham is trying to shock us to have a quarrel with ourselves over how we feel about that.'

Charity, from Battle in East Sussex, says Sense and Sensibility was a dream come true for her.

'I have always loved Jane Austen, and I remember seeing Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle in Pride and Prejudice when I was doing GCSEs. The first seeds of wanting to be an actress were already there and I thought "Wow, it would be wonderful to do something like that."

'Now it would be nice to visit Jane Austen's home at Chawton while I'm in Chichester.'

Next for Charity is a film about Four Seasons composer Antonio Vivaldi, to be made in Turin. She will play his niece, herself a violinist - but not to Four Seasons standard, she says.

The Circle will be in reperoitre from Tuesday< 22nd> until August 29. Tickets: (01243) 781312.