Francesca's family secrets

Back on the London stage for the first time in five years, Francesca Annis opens at the Comedy Theatre on Monday in a play so controversial in its day that it was banned.

The play is Ibsen's Ghosts, in which Annis plays a widow who is preparing for the opening of an orphanage in memory of her husband, and whose son is returning home for the celebrations.

But it was the family secrets that Ibsen exposed in this semi-autobiographical piece - syphilis, incest, arson, blackmail and moral hypocrisy - that proved too much for Victorian audiences.

"In this play the audience quickly sees the irony of the drama," Miss Annis says. "The actors can be sure that the effect of Ibsen's lines is still relevant today."

Annis was last seen on stage at the Hackney Empire as Gertrude, mother to Ralph Fiennes' Hamlet.