FOR many actors, the idea of putting on a mask and playing somebody else is what attracts them to the profession. For writer, performer and cult cabaret star Ursula Martinez being on stage is all about taking the mask, or to put it my pointedly, her clothes off.

“It all happened very organically,” the Hackney-based actress tells me of her trademark nudity. “I grew up with nudist parents and going on nudist holidays, so it’s not shocking to me, it kind of just crept into my work in a relevant way.”

Far from a one-trick naked pony, Ursula’s impassioned, visionary acts range from setting fire to various parts of her anatomy to interrogating her parents live on stage, to playing a Spanish flamenco star from Croydon, where Ursula grew up.

Speaking about her work, the 43-year-old actress, who is also an original cast member of the circus/cabaret phenomena La Clique, tells me: “It’s contemporary theatre that fuses elements of cabaret, comedy, experimental theatre, story telling and live art.

“Everything I do has a comedy angle to it, making people laugh is important. I like to explore other emotions too like pathos, sometimes there are quite sad moments when people cry, but comedy is always the dominant factor.”

Ursula’s latest show, My Stories, Your Emails, sees her return to the Barbican after presenting her trilogy of autobiographical theatre shows, Me, Me, Me! in 2006 and Office Party in 2007.

“The first half is a collection of anecdotes from my life, things I have seen, experiences that for whatever reason have resonated and tickled me,” she explains. “You get to know me quite well, but also my family, neighbours and the world around me.”

“The second half is a collection of fan mail. It’s other people’s opinion of me, but obviously all a bit distorted.”

A one-woman show directed by Ursula’s long-term collaborator, Mark Whitelaw, for barbicanbite10, Ursula says to expect “characters from all over the world,” adding, “some are very charming and funny, some are very inappropriate, and there may be some costume removal.”

Known as much for baring her skin as for baring her soul, I wonder how much of Ursula is really up there on stage and how much is an act?

“I try and be as real as possible when I‘m speaking as me with my own voice and dressed in my own clothes,” she insists. “But obviously it’s a contrived situation where you deliver rehearsed lines. There is a layer of falsehood but within that I try and be as real as possible.”

My Stories, Your Emails runs at the The Pit, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, from Tuesday, February 2 to Saturday, February 13, 8pm. Tickets: 020 7638 8891 or www.barbican.org.uk. Details: www.ursulamartinez.com