IT'S a bit of a leap from plaything of Xena, warrior princess, to a 17th-century Spanish army commander consumed by passion.

Or maybe not. For the actor Marton Csokas, every role is to be treasured and treated seriously.

Filmgoers might recognise Csokas from such recent blockbusters as Aeon Flux, xXx, The Bourne Supremacy and Kingdom of Heaven. But for the past 16 years he has worked steadily in theatre, television and independent films, in his native New Zealand and around the world.

"I have done as much theatre as I have film and television," he says, keen to focus on more than recent history. "But for the last five years I've been part of the publicity machine, and I guess people know me from that."

Csokas will bring his trademark intensity to his latest role, the Commander of Ocana in the Company B production of Peribanez. The sprawling work by the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, legend of the Spanish Golden Age, tells of the commander's adulterous passion for Casilda, the wife of the peasant Pedro, and the struggle between love and honour. When charm doesn't win Casilda over, the commander sends Pedro off to war, and the play turns into a life-and-death chase against time, power and desire.

It's a hot and heady drama befitting the swashbuckling de Vega, who was a poet, sailor, priest, inquisitor, bigamist and murderer, who at one time lived with four of his children, none of whom shared a mother.

Csokas is relishing the romp's theatricality. "It's pretty wild in some ways, but it's quite simple as well, with a folkloric quality.

"This play is a very vital, fun, exploratory adventure true to the spirit of Lope de Vega. At the same time, like any good story, it's full of humour, intrigue, suspense, tragedy and heightened excitement and joy as well as sorrow and tragedy."

The work was written in Spanish verse, and its director, Neil Armfiel,d is using a translation by Tanya Ronder, with choreography by Kate Champion and music by Alan John.

"But we're maintaining a simplicity about it," says Csokas. "I mean, it's not Cats or anything."

Csokas has made his mark playing villains, but says that while the commander has his darker side, no bad guy is ever black and white. "Casilda and Pedro are innocent, pure love and he represents a form of corrupt love.

"However, the way we're doing it he's also very innocent within that. He has an intensity and a particular concentration - quite wild, quite mad."