JENNY SCOTT meets Blackburn-born actress Amanda Hennessey, who is giving a Shakespeare classic the cutting-edge treatment

YOU'D better not cross swords with Amanda Hennessy -- because she knows what she's doing.

For weapon-wielding Amanda is one of the stars of Manchester-based production company Broads With Swords.

The group's quirky name was one of several the cast came up with to try to sum up the tough stance of its all-female cast in its acclaimed debut play Lady Macbeth Rewrites the Rule Book, in which actresses do battle with each other while spouting Shakespearean one-liners.

Amanda said: "We had a list of about 15 names -- Chicks With Sticks, Babes With Blades -- but we settled on this one."

However, 31-year-old Amanda hasn't always been so assertive.

Brought up in Blackburn, she struggled to break into the acting world and had to take off to New York to find her feet.

Amanda lived on Preston New Road and attended Sacred Heart Primary School and Notre Dame secondary school.

However, she just could not break into the showbusiness world in her hometown.

She said: "I tried to take the drama option for my exams at school, but you needed at least seven people for a class to run and not enough people joined.

"I then tried to study drama at Blackburn College when I was 16, but that didn't work out because I was doing two other jobs -- one in a pub and one at the Cherry Tree Nursing Home.

"When I was 19 I tried to do a drama A-level at Blackburn Technical College, but by then I had no confidence.

"I was so fed-up, I decided to go to America and that did the trick."

Amanda worked as a nanny, first for a Connecticut family and then for the children of top professional golfer Duffy Waldorf in Los Angeles.

When she returned to England she was brimming with confidence and enrolled at the Arden School of Theatre in Manchester.

It was here she met fight director and writer Renny Krupinski, who taught her stage fighting.

Renny was to become the driving force behind Broads With Swords and it was he who penned Lady Macbeth Rewrites the Rule Book.

Amanda said: "It's a very funny play -- it works on all sorts of different levels.

"It looks at what happens when a playstation game and a CD rom of the Complete Works of Shakespeare have been mixed up with each other.

"There's a very good storyline, but there's also quite a few gags for literary folk. If you know Shakespeare, you'll get a lot out of it."

Amanda plays 23rd century computer character Tara Loft who does battle with the evil Scamvix amid a cast of confused Shakespearean characters, including Juliet, Cleopatra and Ophelia.

Tara gets transported back into Shakespeare's world and emerges through the cauldron of Macbeth's three witches.

Amanda said: "There's nothing subtle about the name of my character and, of course, Lara Croft is the model.

"However, I'm no Angelina Jolie and I wanted to avoid those kind of comparisons. My character is quite different -- a sword-fighting heroine."

The play makes riotous viewing for all theatre fans and gives Amanda the chance to show off her stagefighting skills.

Amanda said: "Renny wanted to create a female fight company, using swords and sticks.

"I love all the swords -- it's brilliant," she said. "I actually had training to be a fight teacher a couple of years ago, but other things got in the way. I was going to teach sword combat, but acting became a priority instead." Amanda initially felt apprehensive at the idea of joining an all-female company, but her fears proved unfounded.

She said: "It's been an absolute dream. Renny's got some really good people on board and everyone works really well together."

The production's success was proved at the Edinburgh Festival.

Amanda said: "We got a really good reaction up in Edinburgh. We were out on the Royal Mile with our swords promoting the play and we got quite well known.

"We actually made money as a company, which is quite rare in Edinburgh. We had great audiences and we went down really well. It was hard work though -- the play didn't start until 10.15pm each night."

Amanda's confidence in her acting ability has never stopped growing since those early tentative days in Blackburn and now she's really looking forward to touring with Lady Macbeth.

She said: "I had always focused on acting from being very young, but somewhere along the line I'd lost my confidence and got embarrassed about it.

"I've got bags of confidence now, though. Basically, I realised if you want to do something, you've got to go for it. You have to be very lucky to get somewhere without any confidence."

Now, with sword in hand, she feels ready for anything.

"When I finish this play, I'm doing another Renny Krupinski work called Bare. That's about underground bare-knuckle fighting," she said, before quickly adding: "I won't actually be doing any fighting -- I just play the wife of someone who gets involved in it."

This being the new, assertive Amanda Hennessy, you wouldn't put it past her!

Lady Macbeth Rewrites the Rule Book will show at the Manchester Library Theatre from May 20-24. For tickets call (0161) 2367110. It will come to Darwen's Library Theatre on Friday, June 20 at 7.30pm, telephone 01254 774684 .