Nicole Kidman started it by performing a peek-a-boo striptease in the Blue Room. Then Kathleen Turner went the whole hog in The Graduate.

Now the two glamour boys of the British Hollywood brat pack, Ewan McGregor and Jude Law, are staging a series of plays in London, but they are keeping their shirts on.

They are pouring millions of pounds through Natural Nylon, the production company they run with fellow actors Sadie Frost, Jonny Lee Miller and Sean Pertwee, into backing new writing and bringing classics to a younger audience.

With American stars nowadays seemingly unable to step on to a West End stage without shedding their clothes, the pair insisted there was nothing gimmicky about their joint venture with the Ambassador Theatre Group and the Young Vic. "We are not doing this to make work for ourselves," said McGregor. "It is about finding new writers and working with really good people. This is purely an attempt to do some good theatre, commission new writing, adapt the classics and to do our own thing."

He hoped some of the plays might eventually make it on to the screen, "although I'm well aware of the pitfalls. It's all about finding and developing talent".

Natural Nylon has already produced the David Cronenburg film eXistenZ and Nora, in which McGregor played a young James Joyce.

Asked if he would be appearing at the Young Vic where the plays will open, McGregor said, "Possibly. No, I'm not telling you. Oh all right, very probably."

Law, who has just finished shooting Steven Spielberg's new sci-fi film AI, was more forthcoming, saying he would love to appear on stage with McGregor. "There is only so long you can go from film to film to film. Theatre is a more raw experience. I don't want to sound pretentious, but for an actor a live audience is creative inspiration."

Two of the first three plays to be produced by Natural Nylon are classics - Dr Faustus and Christopher Hampton's translation of Chekhov's Three Sisters. The third will be an adaptation of John Fowles's novel The Collector.