ACTOR and musician Mat Fraser is considering his prospects as a Shakespearian actor.

They are, he decides, a rather more limited than for many of his fellow thespians.

"I'm unlikely to be cast as Hamlet," he says. "I'd really screw up the sword fight."

For 45-year-old Mat was born disabled, his arms stunted in the womb by the effects of the infamous morning-sickness drug thalidomide.

As an actor, he says, this puts him at something of a disadvantage.

Much of his work has been in disability theatre including his self-penned Thalidomide Musical and his one-man show Sealboy Freak.

He returns to his thoughts about the King of Denmark and, looking me in the eye, says: "Be honest: "It wouldn't be realistic to have a short-armed gentleman like me playing Hamlet. If a baby born to be king was like this" - he waves an arm to emphasise the point - "They'd kill him and get another one."

He bursts into laughter.

It's an interesting and effective way to underline how the human race are fearful of those who are different. The world of theatre, for all its politically correct wittering, is not a lot better than anywhere else. Which is why Mat is delighted to be playing a classic Shakespearean character at Poole this week.

We are talking during a break in rehearsals for Kaos Theatre's radical re-working of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which opens for a five-night run at Lighthouse Centre for the Arts tomorrow.

The play - part physical theatre, part musical - plunges Shakespeare into a lurid urban underworld of strip clubs, pimps and pole dancers. Mat is playing Puck but as you've never seen him - as a dope-dealing meddler determined to make sure the course of true love will never run smooth. It's a role he feels that really gives him room for creative manoeuvre. Director and Kaos founder Xavier Leret thinks so too.

"Mat and I have been looking for an opportunity to work together for a while. He's done a lot of freak shows and weird circus and sex shows and has the kind of atmosphere about him that kind of suits Puck really well.

"He's an amazing physical performer, a really open character with a joy of life about him."

Also in the cast are Kaos regulars including a pole-dancing Tina Barnes as Hermia/ Snug, Serge Soric as Oberon/ Theseus, Ralf Higgins as Demetrius/Bottom; Nicholas Chambers as Lysander/ Titania/Quince and newcomer Erica Roberts as Helena.

A Midsummer Night's Dsream is at the Lighthouse, Poole until Saturday, September 22. Call 08700 668701 for bookings, times and full details.

JEREMY MILES