Audrey Brisson’s father was the band leader with famous circus Cirque Du Soleil – a life of bright lights, thrills, applause and performing to vast crowds around the world.

It might seem like obvious casting then, choosing her to play Gelsomina in La Strada – a girl sold to the circus and brought up by a strong man who finds happiness with the fool.

And yet Audrey thinks the two characters are poles apart. “We are quite the opposite, I think,” the Canadian tells me.

“I was in my first show aged four and I loved growing up on the road – you get used to it when you are on tour for so long – but I did have a fantasy about having my own mug and pillow,” she says.

“Gelsomina on the other hand grew up in a little village with her family, until she goes on the road, so it’s the other way around.”

“But there are other misconceptions about La Strada, because it is not a circus show. People expect a jolly musical or a jolly circus, and it’s not – it’s bleaker than that and quite dramatic – which means that people are really moved by it and have a really emotional connection with the characters.”

Based on the 1954 Oscar winning Fellini film, La Strada does have a circus section, but is more focused on the three leads Gelsomina, Zampano and Il Matto.

“Gelsomina is a naive innocent young woman, Zampano a brute of a man with small needs – woman food and drink – and the fool who’s a hedonist, so this is about their human connection,” Audrey says.

“And yet the show is really about love, regardless of what or where you are in life, our aims as people are the same – to have love.”

Directed by Sally Cookson, (she of Jane Eyre and Hetty Feather fame), bringing La Strada to the stage was a collaborative process:

“Sally is such a fantastic director and I had to experience her magic again so when she told me she was putting on and adapting this, it sounded really interesting. She really allows you to have a voice.”

So where did Audrey start with such an iconic part? “Gelsomina is such a fascinating character. You think she is a simple and stable young woman but actually she is very complex. Her imagination is so strong and she has hidden depths, so I’m really enjoying her. She is very optimistic.

“And while the film is a masterpiece, it was really important to me not to just replicate it.

“So I thought hard about how to give it a life on stage without imitating what came before.

“It’s been very important to step away from that and create my own version of it,” she continues.

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So how does it compare then, being on tour with La Strada and living with the Cirque Du Soleil crew? Was her childhood equally as eclectic? “Well I grew up in the circus and couldn’t go to school when we were on tour, so I had a teacher who gave me lessons instead

“Then, when we were in Quebec (where Cirque Du Soleil is based) I’d go to a normal school so I had five years in primary school and two at secondary/ high school.

“It was weird going from being taught alone to moving into a class of 30 other children but it was also nice to be surrounded by people my own age.

Did she feel different to the other kids? More bohemian? “I’d hesitate to use the word ‘normal’, because I thought Cirque Du Soleil was normal, it was my normal anyway, but I like to think I got the best of both worlds,” she muses.

Returning a few years ago to perform in Cirque Du Soleil’s 30th anniversary celebrations in Montreal, Audrey loved the reunion, meeting up with all those colourful characters and performers from her past.

“I performed with Cirque Du Soleil for five years as a singer and a character, one of the originals, from the ages of 11-16, and while I didn’t perform any circus tricks in the show, I was surrounded by all these acrobats so had to opportunity to pick up some skills. I learnt the aerial loop when I was there.

But after so long as an itinerant if exotic traveller, Audrey craved normality. She went back to Canada to study classical singing and then turned even more mainstream, enrolling on a sociology course.

Luckily, the natural performer finally realised her true vocation, even if she did have to work it out for herself, rather than just going into the family business.

“I missed the stage too much, it was that simple,” Audrey shrugs.

“So I came to London and enrolled at The Central School of Speech and Drama and the rest is history.

“I’ve been living in London permanently for 10 years now.”

So how has it been? “I’ve had my ups and downs. It’s good when the phone rings,” she laughs.

But don’t be fooled. Her theatre work is extensive, her film work includes Hereafter directed by Clint Eastwood and W.E. directed by Madonna, while TV credits include Money (BBC) and Outlander.

“I love to work with different people but I do return time and time again to the same directors Emma Rice at Kneehigh and of course Sally Cookson,” she tells me.

“And while it was a complete leap of faith for Sally to take me on as Gelsomina, it’s an exhausting show to do because the entire cast is on stage all the time, which makes it quite intense..

“But they are a great group and we get on really well and support each other, so that is very gratifying.”

And what of Gelsomina, does she haunt Audrey on and off stage?

“You have to remember that La Strada is also about abusive relationships - the abused and abusive - so although the film was made in 1954, it’s still relevant today,” Audrey explains.

“I’m quite good at letting go of the character when I’m not on stage though because emotionally it would be too draining otherwise.”

La Strada runs at Oxford Playhouse from Tuesday March 21-25. 01865 305305 or oxfordplayhouse.com