West End boy

LONDON THEATRE:Allen Leech is one of the latest Irish actors to turn his hand to theatre in London's West End, where he has just finished a run of 'Ecstasy' with Mike Leigh. He talks to NEIL BURKEY

HERE ARE some actors for whom everything seems to fall into place. Allen Leech is one of them. In the past few years he has landed a string of plum roles in TV costume dramas, all of which went on to unexpected critical and popular success. First was his role as Marcus Agrippa in the HBO series Rome, followed by The Tudors, wherein he played Catherine Howard’s doomed former lover, and finally there is Downton Abbey, in which he plays an Irish chauffeur who gets ensnared in the family politics at an English country estate.

Now he’s making his British stage debut in Mike Leigh’s play Ecstasy, which Leigh is directing – this is the first time the director has ever returned to a previous work, so a rare opportunity, then.

When we catch up with Leech, he is backstage between the matinee and the evening performances at the ultra-modern Hampstead Theatre in northwest London (where Ecstasy was originally staged in 1979). Next up is a seven-week stint at the Duchess Theatre in the West End. Not bad for someone who has yet to hit 30.

Leech studied drama at Trinity and walked the stage in his early acting days at both the Abbey and the Gate, after which he hit LA to run the pilot-season rounds. While in LA he secured a London-based agent, prompting a move to London, and although he has lived there seven years, this is his first time on an English stage. “It’s much harder to break into theatre,” he says, “especially if you haven’t trained in the UK system.”

But what a way to break. Leech carries himself with a confident ease mirrored in his character in Ecstasy, despite having only a moment’s respite between two long performances. And why not? Everything seems to have gone his way since around the time he was named Ireland’s sexiest man by U magazine back in 2005, beating wide boys and sportsmen. He blushes at the reminder.

Ecstasy (named far before the drug became a part of public consciousness) is a two-act play set entirely within a shabby, cramped Kilburn bedsit. “The first time I saw the set I said to myself, ‘Where’s the rest of it?’ It’s so tiny,” Leech says. “It could fit on the Hampstead stage I think seven times.” The set is almost exactly as it was when it was shown more than 30 years ago, with a cast containing a group of unknown actors, including Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent and Stephen Rea, who played the same role as Leech. Apparently all of the cast has turned out to see the show (barring Rea himself, who is currently filming in Vancouver).

How did they react to witnessing the characters they essentially created at the behest of Leigh come alive once more at the hands of others? With approval, apparently. According to Leech, Broadbent, on seeing it said, “It was good,” then, after a pause, “but I don’t remember it being that good.”

The first act of Ecstasy establishes the lonely, boozy life of Jean, a young woman who has entered into a loveless affair with a married brute who lives in the neighborhood. The second, in which Leech makes his first appearance as Mick, the affably daft Cork-born husband of Jean’s best friend Dawn, is much different in tone, and somewhat surprising for anyone with a passing knowledge of Mike Leigh’s work, in that it’s funny.

As Leech puts it, “Some people have taken offence to what happens in the first act. It’s quite full on, and there were even people screaming and running out. It’s a pity, because if they’d waited until the second act, it’s hilarious.” It came as a surprise to the actors as well, though: “Rehearsals were very serious, no one was laughing, and Mike said, [Leech takes on Leigh’s hangdog demeanour]: ‘Don’t forget there will be general mirth.’ ”

Which is no lie. Over the course of what Leech estimates to be seven pints, Mick, Dawn and Jean, joined by their lanky friend Roy, jabber about old times, sing a few songs and have a dance. Sitting in the audience one feels like a silent member of the party, so comfortably do the characters interact within the intimate space. Asked if he had any tips for acting progressively drunk over a period spanning an hour and a half, Leech advised that you do what we all do when in the process of getting drunk: act like you’re trying to stay sober.

So what’s next for this actor after having played under the West End’s bright lights? “Well there’s talk that the production might be moving to Paris for the International Theatre Festival.” He sits back and flashes a smile. “If not, I’m going on vacation.