“I’ve always been drawn to this area,” says the New Zealand actor, who moved here for good six years ago and has become a familiar face on TV with roles in Rake, Jack Irish and Underbelly. And of course Wentworth, when she made the beloved character Bea Smith from Prisoner her own, finding fans all over the world.

Now Cormack has her debut at the Sydney Opera House in Bell Shakespeare’s bold production of The Misanthrope, Moliere’s 17th-Century French satire about a man who feels compelled to tell the truth no matter what the consequences.

Reworked by Sydney playwright Justin Fleming, and directed by Griffin Theatre’s artistic director Lee Lewis, in this version he becomes a she as Cormack takes the title role, set here and now in the Australian music industry.

Apart from dabbling in Shakespeare as a young thesp, this is Cormack’s first big crack at the classics.

“I have to be careful what I wish for,” she says. “I really wanted to go back to theatre because I’d been doing a lot of screen work, and I wanted to do a classic play that involved a lot of acting acrobatics. I don’t think I’ve ever really sunk my teeth into a script like that, then Lee invited me to be part of this.”

“I begged Danielle to do it!” says Lewis. “We had coffee and I was nervous, like going on a date, ‘Please do this play because I think you’d be amazing.’ When she said yes I inappropriately jumped up and down on my couch.”

“The Tom Cruise moment,” says Cormack.

One of the reasons Lewis was so keen for Cormack to play the role was her emotional intelligence. “Understanding how humans are in desperate moments, I think she’s got a real insight for that and I think she’s playing one of the most desperate characters ever described: ‘How do I live in this world, when I see for what it is?’”

Unlike most of Moliere’s comedies, this one has an element of tragedy, as the central character decides to remove herself from the world rather than engage in the endless falsehoods required to survive in society.

Though each is optimistic by nature, Cormack and Lewis both relate to this radical decision.

“I live my life in theatre foyers, there’s no honesty in a foyer, don’t be ridiculous,” says Lewis. “I have to accept that if I want to play the game, but this is someone who says maybe the game is not worth it.”

Cormack remembers clearly the moment she realised Facebook was here to stay.

“I felt quite despairing about it,” she says. “Some kind of sacred bond between people had been broken, everyone now had this commonality that was not true. You’re not my real friend.”

She does have a Facebook fan page — “not necessarily run by me, it’s part of the business now” — but doesn’t have a personal profile.

“I would call my friends and see them face-to-face if I wanted to find out their point of view or what was going on in their life.”

Lewis sees Moliere as the Ricky Gervais of his time, as a wickedly astute observer of ordinary human behaviour. “It’s not farce, it’s human comedy.”

She thinks he would have a field day with modern life.

“I think we’re back in the French court now,” she says. “That sense of pretence, how you behave as opposed to how you are in private, the game and the competition and the very public living.”

But things have changed too — flipping the play’s gender would not have worked in Moliere’s time.

“There’s so much to talk about in rehearsal,” says Lewis. “There are scenes that were two women talking, now it’s two men having that conversation — is it the same thing, does it need to change? Sometimes it’s exactly the same, sometimes it’s quite different and we’re navigating that.”

Even the past couple of years have seen big social shifts.

“It’s so in the forefront of these global conversations,” Cormack says. “Everyone is hyper-aware of language around sexual orientation and gender and not labelling people or their choices.”

She and Lewis were both thrilled to see Robin Wright as the new lead in the final TV series of House of Cards, previously starring Kevin Spacey. “I was like, yeah girl!” says Cormack.

Cormack has also taken power into her own hands, starting a production company with fellow Wentworth star Nicole Da Silva.

“Relying on other people to give you roles is really debasing, and after working in the industry a long time I’m not a one trick pony,” she says. “There are many things I’ve learnt — production, writing, directing. I can’t espouse to be great at all of them but I have an interest.”

They have a few irons in the fire, working on a project with a major Australian TV production company, as well as an international co-production, a documantary. “That’s off the back of Wentworth, dealing with female incarceration and restorative justice,” Cormack says.

Meanwhile, there’s a big opening night ahead. Talking about her excitement to be back in the theatre after a three-year break, Cormack has her own Tom Cruise moment.

“To sit in a room with like-minded people and dissect a script and explore the text and the world, I love it, I LOVE IT. It’s like nothing else in the world matters at that moment.”

The Misanthrope, until September 28, Sydney Opera House, bellshakespeare.com.au

CORMACK ON HER ADOPTED DARLO HOME

“What’s not to love?” Cormack says about her adopted home if Darlinghurst, where she lives with her eight-year-old son Ahi and partner Adam Anthony. “It’s got its own little theatre precinct, I’m a walk from town, a train ride to the beaches, it’s got fantastic little bars and restaurants and the area has always attracted a really colourful, diverse group of people.”

It’s a great place to bring up her son, she says. “I live in an apartment, so we walk around the area a lot. I love him having relationships to other people in the community and being exposed to all different social strata and people … I think it’s really important rather than sheltering kids.”

Mother and son also take drumming and guitar lessons in Potts Point. “My son goes to the same school so we have been jamming. He is very musical so I thought I could sharpen up my skills so we could play together.”

Lewis also loves the life on the streets around the Stables theatre where she works, perched over William St at Kings Cross. She likes sitting underneath the (in)famous “poos on sticks” sculpture, to look out over the skyline. “I think about the city a lot and I think it’s a product of being at the top of the hill.”