At the age of just 21, actress Jade Williams has landed a role she's always dreamed of.

Jade stars in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, the poignant and amusing tale of a painfully shy young woman with an uncanny ability to impersonate the 20th century's great singing divas.

Known as Little Voice, or LV, the Scarborough lass has been belting out tunes since her father died, leaving her in the shadow of her brassy mother, Mari, who gets by on cheap booze and cheaper men. LV's escape is listening to her father's old records and impersonating the likes of Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey and Marilyn Monroe.

When Mari gets lucky one night and brings home a washed-up talent scout, he hears LV singing and spots a chance to make a fast buck out of her. But Little Voice doesn't want to become a star.

"It's a part I always wanted to play," says Jade. "For a young actress it's such a work-out, artistically. She's such an unusual character, since her father's death she's become a recluse and stays in her bedroom listening to the records he left her. Mimicking the singers on her dad's records is her way of keeping alive her relationship with him.

"She expresses herself through singing. She simply reacts to people, that's the big challenge playing her."

Living with an overbearing mother doesn't help.

"Mari would be a nightmare for anyone to live with, she's just about the worst person for LV," says Jade. "Mari is so loud. She oppressed LV's father, Frank, and has now transferred that to LV.

"The set is great, a lot of scenes are in the house, a two-up two-down," adds Jade. "So you see LV alone up in her bedroom and her mother's chaos downstairs. The nightclub scene, when LV is on stage, is spectacular."

Jim Cartwright's play was first performed in 1992, winning the Olivier award for Best Comedy. In 1998 it was released as a film, Little Voice, starring Jane Horrocks, Michael Caine, Ewan McGregor and Brenda Blethyn.

I'm one of the minority who wasn't keen on it. I didn't like the performances - Blethyn was like an unfunny pantomime dame and she and Horrocks had strong Lancashire accents despite the story being set on the east coast of Yorkshire - but the play is quite different and it'll be refreshing to see another actress play LV.

"It was written for Jane Horrocks and she played it on stage before the film but I'm not daunted by that," says Jade. "Every actress brings something new to the role."

Playing a cripplingly shy girl who expresses herself through song, mimicking divas like Shirley Bassey and Judy Garland, presents a range of challenges for an actress. Jade has approached the singing as LV would.

"I researched these singers, listening to and absorbing their voices, but thought it would be unwise to approach them simply as an impressionist. It was more sensible to approach them as a girl who's infatuated with them," she says. "Jim Cartwright said the artists used should suit whichever actress is playing the part. We've introduced some different singers, such as Tina Turner and Nina Simone, which works really well.

"I never considered myself a singer," she reveals. "I'm an actress first but I enjoy singing."

Jade was a child actor who got her break in Grange Hill, aged 12. "To be honest it was like being at school because there were so many children on set - all in school uniforms - and we had three hours of tutoring a day. I look back on it with affection, it's a national institution."

A pupil at the famous Sylvia Young Theatre School - her classmates included Tom Fletcher from McFly and Matt James from Busted - Jade knew early on that she wanted to be an actress. "I come from a non-theatrical family and I went to Sylvia Young on a full scholarship, it was the only way I could've gone there," she says. "I was in awe of the place, I was there for eight years and it was great training."

Earlier this year she won critical acclaim for her lead role in Market Boy at the National Theatre and she has also appeared in Les Miserables. On TV she's best known as an inmate in Bad Girls and roles in EastEnders, Judge John Deed, Casualty and William and Mary. She appears in a film, Life and Lyrics about rival DJ posses, released next week.

l The Rise and Fall of Little Voice runs at Harrogate Theatre from October 13 to November 4. For tickets ring (01423) 502116.