Csokas's work has ranged from powerful contemporary dramas, such as Angels in America, to lighter pieces such as the irreverently brash Ladies Night, which had a stripping element.

Csokas's family hailed from Hungary and settled in New Zealand, where he was born. He started acting on the New Zealand stage and became a heart-throb in the nightly television medical soap Shortland Street, seen briefly here on SBS.

Csokas, who has a deep, beautifully modulated voice, says his given name and surname are unusual, but he has no intention of changing them. He is not big on answering personal questions, but says he travelled the world after school, then returned to study at Dunedin University.

"I didn't have any concept of acting as a career until I took on roles in student revues and fringe theatre. I soon realized it was the direction I wanted to follow."

Csokas co-founded a theatre company with friends to perform well-tried classics, as well as interesting new plays. "We called the company Stronghold because we wanted to claim something we believed in. There was a lot of strength and commitment from everyone involved."

The company was run on a shoestring, and Csokas was involved for almost two years. "We came in and out of the company whenever we were free of other projects."

Peter Whelan's The Herbal Bed is his first major project since arriving in Australia, and the offer came after working with director Simon Phillips in the Auckland production of Arcadia. Phillips directs Melbourne Theatre Company's The Herbal Bed, which had its world premiere in Stratford, England, last year. Critics there described it as a love story, a gripping courtroom drama and a moral thriller. It was also hailed as one of the best new plays the Royal Shakespeare Company had produced - appropriate, too, as the play concerns Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna (Frances O'Connor), the wife of a respected physician (Robert Menzies) who is publicly accused of adultery with a married neighbor, Rafe Smith (Marton Csokas). Melbourne audiences may discover what really happened that summer night in the herbal garden. In the meantime, they are more than content with a stunning poster that is popping up around town showing O'Connor and a bare chested Csokas in an amorous clinch on that herbal bed.

Of his role as Rafe, Csokas says, "The play is about love and its many guises. Sometimes people love when they shouldn't, when desire gets the better of them. They have to live with what they may or may not have done, and with the morals of the times."

Are audiences going to be shocked?

"The play draws you in strongly, enables you to see things in a voyeuristic way, but the thriller aspect is quite exciting," Csokas says.

Is there nudity?

"It depends on your frame of mind whether you are shocked or not," says Csokas.