Double tops

LESLIE Simpson the Middlesbrough film actor has grown in stature thanks to roles in three Neil Marshall horror movies: Dog Soldiers, the Descent and the just-filmed South African project, Doomsday, which has cost £30m-plus.

But Leslie Simpson the theatre tour creator has a far harder time. For a start he's a focal part of North-East-based threeoverden, which only really has two permanent members, and he shares creative and rehearsal duties with Hexham's Bill Martin.

"We split our time equally between Hexham and Middlesbrough although neither of us drives," reveals 40-year-old Simpson about his friendship with Martin, who is in his mid-70s, which began when they met in the early days of Stockton's Arc in 1999.

There were originally three people behind the theatre collective but third member Michael Carruthers moved towards writing.

"It is rather mysterious that there are two of us instead of three," admits Simpson. The pair are currently resurrecting a play they did a couple of years ago, Ibsen's Peer Gynt. "We've stripped it to the bare bones and not gone for the grandiosity normally associated with the piece because we're a studio company with six actors. There are normally over 40 characters and we're doing it with six. We felt we only scratched the surface last time even though it was a successful tour.

"In the meantime, the Arts Council came up with some money and during that process we also started looking at Ibsen and realised that he was essentially Peer Gynt even though he had this reputation of being this dour kind of character. We found quite the contrary and that he was an interesting and intriguing person himself. He was reckless and did weird and wonderful things. We presented as a work in progress Young Ibsen, leading up to the writing of Peer Gynt, and as if that wasn't enough for the small company we've got we're actually going to attempt them both in tandem," he explains.

ON theatre production, Simpson adds: "We do have a reputation for being a little bit mad. In fact, some of the supporters we've got only support us because, quite frankly, they can't believe we're as mad as we are. We always take these pieces that are bigger than us but we feel that gives us an extra energy and drags us out of the comfort zone of what people think that theatre really is. We thought we'd gone about as far as we can now, so we thought we'd attempt to do the impossible this time."

threeovereden have updated Peer Gynt's voyage from Norway, Africa, America, to Hades and personal hell beginning in the 1930s, rather than the beginning of the 20th century, up to the current day.

The tour takes in nine North-East venues and becomes the sixth production the company can currently stage - another is Sean O'Brien's adaptation of Aristophanes' The Birds.

Simpson says that the reason that threeovereden continue to look for difficult works to produce is that "there are good companies that deal with specially-written North-East work, like Live, and we feel there isn't room for us and it's not what we feel. I was born and raised in Middlesbrough but I'm first and foremost a human being and ultimately you have to cross cultural as well as audience appeal. Some people like regional stuff and some like the classics. We are a philosophical company but not in an arty-farty way, we are concerned with the human condition more than anything else. So Ibsen's epic adventure is probably the supreme thing we can do."

Simpson has just returned from an epic adventure of his own as part of Newcastle director's Neil Marshall's latest movie Doomsday "starring Bob Hoskins and a number of other pedigree actors, like David O'Hara of Braveheart fame".

"Neil's speciality seems to be films beginning with D," jokes Simpson.

The post-apocalyptic sci-fi is set in the near-future after Scotland is sealed off to halt the spread of plague but the regulation group of scientists and military escort is sent in to check on signs of life.

"Having worked on all three films this is shaping to be the most horrific because he's got a lot bigger toys to play with and he's using them to the hilt. I play a mad loner and hardman called Carpenter. Between you and me they've just finished filming now and I was home three weeks ago which gives you a fair idea of how long my character survives," he jokes.

"South Africa was fantastic. I can highly recommend anyone to work for Universal Pictures, they are the best employers in the world. They treated us like kings and they really went for Neil's family approach to filming. It's sometimes difficult to go back to the same group the second time but it just isn't like that. They are like long-lost friends because it's the Dog Solders and The Descent group plus a few more," adds Simpson, who has played a cowardly soldier and a white-painted cannibal in previous movies.

"I know I'm quite unique in coming from Middlesbrough and being able to supplement my wages with being in big Hollywood films. It's not as much money as people imagine it to be," says Simpson, who has followed an ambition of avoiding TV celebrity because he prefers the challenge of film and theatre.

And returning to his theatrical theme, Simpson modestly sums up threeovereden: "We're not really capable, either of us, to run a theatre company. It's madness really. We love what we're doing but we're not entirely sure we're of any worth to anybody. But you learn so much about yourself in theatre, your own capabilities and strengths."

* Young Ibsen dates: May 31, Stockton Arc; June 2, Hambleton Forum, Northallerton; June 5, Queen's Hall, Hexham; June 7, Darlington Arts Centre (matinee); June 9, The Store, Dipton; June 11, Lit & Phil, Newcastle.

Peer Gynt: June 6 & 7, Darlington Arts Centre; June 13-16, Northern Stage, Newcastle. www.threeovereden.com