The highs and lows of life as a Hollywood icon will be portrayed on stage through the medium of trapeze.

In Audrey Hepburn's Arms is described as an "aerial drama" by writer John Binnie and stars Philippa Vafadari as the Oscar-winning actress.

Mr Binnie believes the trapeze offers the perfect format for symbolising the way the performer and former fashion model lived her life.

He said: "Audrey Hepburn was one of the world's most beautiful women but also one of the thinnest. Her weight really haunted her throughout her life.

"For a trapeze artist, every extra pound a performer carries is very important so I thought there was a real similarity to what the two go through. Audrey was a combination of being delicate and strong, which are exactly the same qualities displayed by trapeze artists. Philippa is able to do all these phenomenal tricks which require a great deal of strength."

Ms Vafadari, who trained as an actress before taking up the trapeze eight years ago, will perform half the one-woman show on the trapeze.

She said: "There is a great physical effort in doing the trapeze and this mirrors Audrey's life. She trained as a ballet dancer and approached her acting in the same methodical way she was taught dancing in her youth."

Ms Vafadari will glide above the audience and round the stage as she portrays two important periods of Audrey Hepburn's life - starring in the much-loved Breakfast At Tiffany's and her later career as an ambassador for UNICEF, working with starving children in Africa.

Mr Binnie said: "It is a very uplifting show and features music from some of Audrey's movies, including some of the songs she sung herself while on screen."

The Glasgow-born playwright, whose other trapeze-based shows include Pussy Galore's Flying Circus, thinks the unusual format gives the audience more.

He said: "If we were just doing a play someone would have to impersonate Audrey but we are bringing something extra and trying to capture her beauty and poise, representing these things on the trapeze.

"There is something incredible about being so close to a trapeze artist and marvelling at what they can do. It looks so easy but you just know it would be extremely difficult."

In Audrey Hepburn's Arms premiers at the Komedia Theatre, Gardner Street, Brighton, on September 30.

To book, call 01273 647100.