We won’t be seeing British actress Keira Knightley on the big screen for a while, she has cancelled and films for a while so she can make her stage debut in the West End in December.

The Oscar-nominated actress is said to be ‘terrified but excited’ about appearing in a modern-day version of Moliere’s 17th century masterpiece The Misanthrope, in which she will play a flirtatious Hollywood film star, joining an ensemble cast led by Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre actor Damian Lewis, who plays the title role.

Tara Fitzgerald and Dominic Rowan will also star. Rehearsals start the middle of next month, with preview performances at the Comedy Theatre from December 7 and an official opening night on December 17.
However, Keira’s preparations have already begun. She has been working with a voice coach and having singing lessons to help with voice projection.

When Knightley was little she would often accompany her parents -  mother Sharman Macdonald is a playwright and father Will Knightley an actor (he’s currently about the only actor in Calendar Girls to keep his clothes on) – on theatre tours.

As Damian, her future leading man, noted: ‘She’s been surrounded by theatre all her life. ‘She also knows of the importance of being part of a company of actors.

Knightley has been in talks about starring in a new film version of the musical My Fair Lady, which Danny Boyle had hoped to direct, but he has withdrawn from the project. It won’t shoot now until 2011.