WHEN Bournemouth born actor Andrew Slade was viciously attacked in a nightclub, spending months in hospital with a serious head injury, he thought his acting career was over.

But nine years later Andrew, 32, returns to the stage and his hometown to play Frankenstein's monster in Artemis Theatre Group's Mary Shelley Goes to Hollywood.

It opens for a three-night run at Christchurch Regent centre tonight (Thursday).

Andrew spent his early childhood in Boscombe and says: "It feels very special that I have returned to acting in a place I have very fond memories of. I have come back to my roots, We moved to pebbly Brighton but always came back to sandy Bournemouth for our holidays," he says.

His route into acting has not been a conventional one. When he was four his parents moved to Brighton, and his mother joined an amateur dramatic company.

"I was given a part in one of their plays when I was only five," Andrew recalls. "I think the acting bug must have bitten me then."

He was later spotted by a theatre producer while appearing in a school play, and performed in two professional productions at the Marlow Theatre, Canterbury.

"I was planning to be an actor, but that wasn't expected of me, so I went to York University and studied business management and languages. But I still kept up the acting, and after university was spotted in an am dram production by the managing director of a touring company.

"Theatre in Education toured all over Europe and I was thoroughly enjoying myself when I was attacked and beaten up in a club in Dover. My skull was broken in several places and I was in hospital for three months.

"I had to have my bones reset and my nose rebuilt. I nearly haemorrhaged to death."

As a result of the attack, Andrew lost his job with the touring company, and had to rebuild his life.

"I had to earn some money very quickly, so went into management and had a number of jobs, but all the time longed to return to acting. But I had lost my self confidence, and thought that because I had not gone to acting school I didn't stand much of a chance."

A chance offer to appear in a TV pilot for Channel Five (to be shown later this year) rekindled his passion for acting.

"I decided I had to get back to the stage, so when I was asked to audition for the part of Frankenstein's monster in Mary Shelley Goes to Hollywood, I leapt at the chance.

"In this play, the monster's need for love and recognition reveals him to be as human as the rest of us. He also warns us of the monster that is in us all. It's a complex, challenging part for any actor, especially as I am also playing Byron!"