Natalie Imbruglia makes stage acting debut in Ayckbourn's Things We Do For Love

Pop star Natalie Imbruglia will make her stage acting debut next year in a production of Alan Ayckbourn's Things We Do For Love.

The production, directed by Laurence Boswell, will open at the Theatre Royal Bath from 16 to 26 April 2014, followed by a UK tour.

Imbruglia, best known for her number one single "Torn", will play Nikki Wickstead, the victim of a classic Ayckbourn love triangle.

Further casting is still to be announced.

Imbruglia first rose to fame on Neighbours, playing Beth Brennan. Her subsequent debut album "Left Of The Middle" sold more than six million copies worldwide and won her two Brit Awards.

She co-starred in the 2003 film Johnny English with Rowan Atkinson and played the lead in 2009 film Closed for Winter.

Things We Do For Love, which premiered in 1997, is set in a converted house in South West London, occupied by the elegant but glacial Barbara, her lovelorn lodger Gilbert, and Barbara's old school-friend Nikki and her fiancé Hamish. Things soon take a dramatic turn as Barbara's supposed hostility towards Hamish masks deeper feelings.

According to press material, "In a wonderfully imaginative set, which reveals a limited view of the rooms above and below Barbara’s flat, a bedroom farce develops into something more complex as the two adversaries fall head over heels in lust."

Laurence Boswell's West End credits include directing Madonna in Up For Grabs, her London stage debut, Eddie Izzard in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, and Matt Damon and Jake Gyllenhaal in This Is Our Youth.

Things We Do For Love is hotly tipped to transfer to London following its UK tour, venues for which are still to be announced.