Eleanor of Acquitaine: Mother of the Pride - Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham, Thursday

SHE'S only one syllable away from a certain well-known warbler of Andrew-Lloyd Webber songs, but Eileen Page is a stage star in her own right - and in quite a different area to crowd-pleasing musicals based on unreadable books.

The respected Royal Shakespeare Company actress brings her one-woman show, Eleanor of Acquitaine: Mother of the Pride, to The Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham next week - and audiences are in for a dramatic treat.

Page, who has played several major roles on the London stage as well as in repertory seasons in Manchester and Liverpool, has brought the story of Eleanor of Acquitaine - the only woman to be Queen of both England and France - to compellingly vivid life in a show which promises to be as involving as it is informative.

An anonymous 13th century commentator described the formidable Eleanor as "an incomparable woman born beyond her time...strong-willed yet kind, unassuming yet sagacious", and it's easy to see why.

Famous for sex, wealth, wisdom and dastardly diplomacy, she ignited the Middle Ages with her heretical expos of male supremacy and set in motion 300 years of Anglo-French wars.

The play sees the Queen on her death-bed, at the then incredible age of 82, looking back on a decidedly colourful past.

A major talking-point at the 1999 Edinburgh Festival, Page has been on tour with Eleanor of Acquitaine all over the UK in recent months.

* Eleanor of Acquitaine: Mother of the Pride is at The Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham on Thursday, at 7.45pm. Tickets cost from £6, with concessions available. For more information, call the box office on 01329 310600.