Kelly's naked ambition

Notorious for wearing a dress at the Snatch premiere that left little to the imagination, Kelly Brook is preparing to make her stage debut in a role that may well require her to wear even less.

The former television presenter, famously sacked from the Big Breakfast show, is playing the part of a table dancer in Eye Contact, a new play by Neil Monaghan opening at Riverside Studios later this month.

The play promises to lay bare the world of the table-dancing clubs now proliferating through the capital, by examining the motives and expectations of both the dancers and the men who come to ogle.

Kelly - whose 21st birthday auspiciously coincides with the first night on 23 November - says she is excited by the prospect of portraying Anya, a loud-mouthed London table dancer in "my first serious play".

She says: "I think every girl must wonder what it feels like to do this, to have all eyes on her and to be the perfect thing that all these guys want.

"In fact, Anya thinks all the men are complete tossers, total low-life. She just uses them to make money. But she finds she sort of likes one of them, a confident young banker called Hugo, and then hates herself for liking him."

It is this area that intrigues playwright Monaghan, the area where fantasy and reality begin to merge - where truth and lies become interchangeable and where the balance tilts in the sexual power games being played.

Kelly, whose fellow table dancers in the imaginary club Fantasy International are played by American Vicki Simon, Anna Madeley and Preeya Kalidas, has yet to sort out her dress code for the occasion.

She felt her little pink number worn at the Snatch premiere was "too revealing for this".

She explains: "You have to have something to take off. Most of the girls tend to wear evening dresses."

While Kelly has danced on pop videos before, her co-star Vicki Simon has no previous dance experience. But they all intend to put in authentic performances, and have been going to real table-dancing clubs for training sessions.