Susan Hampshire is returning to Richmond Theatre to perform in Somerset Maugham’s popular play The Circle and just as her character returns to her family home to put the cat amongst the pigeons, so Hampshire is returning to a play she first appeared in in 1976.

Hampshire first took on the role of young and love-struck Elizabeth but she is now playing Lady Kitty, a character who refuses to grow old gracefully, and the actress is enjoying the chance to rediscover Maugham’s play.

“Having played the younger role 30 years ago I knew that it was a beautifully constructed play with a great thread of truth and poignancy in it,” she says.

“Each scene has a different rhytmn but they are short which is good for audiences used to watching TV. There’s also enormous humour, which is such a wonderful tonic. Ultimately, it’s about love. What better subject is there?”

“My character left her husband 30 years ago to run off with his best friend and she’s been living in exile in Italy ever since.

She’s invited back and the rather natural young woman that she was has become a rather ridiculous character; over made-up and over-dressed.”

Described by one critic as “a flamboyantly fading flower,” would a modern day Kitty be dolled up like a footballers wife? “Absolutely. Kitty obviously sleeps in a face pack and dyes her hair, which is a big secret, or so she thinks, and she dresses in slightly ridiculous clothes, although she knows all the best dressmakers.”

The Chichester Festival Theatre production comes to Richmond from September 29 to October 4 and Hampshire, a patron of the theatre, is delighted to be returning to the town. She says: “Richmond is an incredibly beautiful theatre. It’s very well run and near my home, so what could be better? It’s perfect.”

Despite years of experience on the stage and screen Hampshire is still eccentrically supertstitious: “On my first preview [of The Circle] I saw a single magpie and I was hysterical. I’ve now drawn two beautiful magpies that I keep in my dressing room, so that if ever I see one I know that I have two more.”

The Circle, Richmond Theatre, The Green, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1QJ, September 29 - October 4, 0870 060 6651, theambassadors.com/richmond