ASK Dillie Keane why she declines to join her partner in his pastime of horse-riding, and you are likely to receive a stock response.

“I get up on stage and sing songs I’ve written in front of thousands of strangers,” she says. “That’s enough bravery for one lifetime.” But now she is undertaking another act of supreme courage – the theatrical equivalent of ‘flying solo without a safety net’, as she puts it. She is performing a one-woman play, My Brilliant Divorce, on a national tour that visits several south coast venues this month.

Dillie, best-known as founder of all-female trio Fascinating Aida, has done solo tours previously – most recently with Back To You, which went to the West End, Edinburgh Festival and Berlin’s premier cabaret venue. But she has at least had a pianist on stage with her then, and in one sense the fact that she has not had even a share in the writing makes her latest challenge even bigger.

“The words aren’t in your skin in the same way. It has taken a little while for me to feel I own it completely.

“I know,” she adds with a typically throaty laugh, “I’m so easily scared!”

My Brilliant Divorce, by Geraldine Aron, has previously been performed by Dawn French, and then another producer wanted Jenny Eclair – ‘a really good friend of mine’ – to do it. “So I’m number two choice, but I’m very pleased to be doing it.

“It’s a playologue. It has a story, and there are some recorded voices – people I talk to on the phone. It’s the story of a woman’s progression from the moment her husband says I’m divorcing you to the moment she decides she can really move forward. But I don’t want to give the ending away – it’s wonderful.

Anyone who has had a major relationship break up will recognise an awful lot of this play. The character, Angela, is utterly unaware that her marriage is really unsatisfactory and is just sort of bumbling along.

What about that word ‘brilliant’ in the title? Is the play a celebration of divorce? “No, the title is a mixture of the ironic, angry and sarcastic. The play isn’t so much a celebration of divorce but of the fact that you can get through it.” Dillie, never having married, has never had the experience of divorce but she points out: “Heartbreak is universal.”

Dillie is one of those people who seem sickeningly good at everything. She trained in music (in Dublin) and drama (in London) and is an actress equally at home in straight and musical theatre, a pianist, singer and songwriter, and a sometimes controversial, always entertaining columnist.

She wrote about the tour of My Brilliant Divorce and her need to get fit for it: “For some time I have viewed the sight of my corpulent and flabby self with shock and revulsion. Where is the svelte and lissom girl that was my younger self? Who is that pudgy old gargoyle pretending to be me?” She exaggerated, of course, but she did embark on a fitness regime. Speaking amid the pressure of daily rehearsals for the tour, she adds: “It is difficult to stick to the regime at the moment, but I'm keeping it up better than I feared or even hoped.

“I'm a model of propriety and good sense... and relative fitness.”

The good news for fans is that this summer’s handful of performances marking the 25th anniversary of theatrical cabaret trio Fascinating Aida is to be followed by a national tour next year. “I was cautious about doing this summer's performances because it made me unhappy before,” Dillie says.

“My dad had been dying and I had to replace Marilyn (Cutts) while that was happening. My partner also had cancer and then our much-loved pianist, Russell Churney, died. So the whole thing became an enormous burden and relationships within the group were not good.

“I just thought I didn't want to do this again. We said we would suck it and see. We said if it was fun we would do some more, and if we didn't enjoy it we would say that was that. But it is the best we have had - very, very musical and wonderful fun.”

So fans are in for two forthcoming stage treats.

n The first, My Brilliant Divorce comes to the Kings Theatre, Southsea on Monday. Tickets: 023 9282 8282 or visit kings-southsea.com The show also appears at The Nuffield in Southampton on October 17 and 18.