The man for all seasons

The brother of actor Francis Matthews, who has made his name in classical theatre, talks to Steve Pratt about bringing a month-long version of the work to York's Theatre Royal

ACTOR Paul Shelley fell in love when he appeared on the London stage in a revival of A Man For All Seasons three or four years ago. Not with a person but the play - Robert Bolt's historical drama charting the clash between the state, in the formidable shape of King Henry V, and the individual, namely Sir Thomas More, who put conscience before approval of the monarch's behaviour.

"I knew the film already and fell in love with the play and thought I'd like to direct it," he recalls.

So he contacted Damian Cruden, artistic director of York Theatre Royal, where Shelley starred as Elyot in Noel Coward's Private Lives some years ago. The result was an invitation to direct A Man For All Seasons in York, with pantomime baddie regular David Leonard starring as More.

"It's a brilliant play about the individual man versus the state. The writer does the work for you. It's just beautifully written and my work now with the actors is to let the words do it for them," he says during a break in rehearsals.

He loved playing Norfolk in the West End and on tour in a production that starred Martin Shaw as More. "Giving actors a play they enjoy doing is half the battle," he says.

"I knew I would do a different production from the one I was in. We all have our own attitude to things. I've been in the business so long, have met good directors and bad directors, and thought I would like to do a different production.

I can see other things to liberate the play."

One difference to the London staging in which he appeared is the way the Common Man, the narrator of the piece, is introduced. The York Common Man comes out of the audience in modern dress to join the historically-garbed actors on stage. The setting and the acting space, are very different too.

Shelley has directed before, including Chekhov's The Seagull and more recently a Shaw double bill of one-act plays, but is known mostly as an actor. He's just finished playing Duncan in Macbeth at Chichester, London and New York.

He played Antony in Antony And Cleopatra and Julius Caesar in the same season at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Three Tom Stoppard plays - The Real Thing, Arcadia and Oscar Wilde in The Invention Of Love - are among his West End work.

"I'm an actor who's directing and am confident as a director. I know I have something to say and something to give," he says.

Leonard was one of the casting suggestions that Shelley seized on. He's never acted with or directed him before. Some of the actors he has worked with previously.

"The main thing is they seem so happy and are having fun - and if we don't have fun, we should go home. Yes, of course, it's got to be good, but you have to enjoy the process or you're not going to transmit that enjoyment," he says.

"When you have such a wonderful play, you have no excuse not to have fun. It's not only tragic, but witty. Like all great writers, he knows you have to get people laughing and then they're on your side."

ONE member of the cast is family, Damien Matthews, who is the son of Shelley's actor brother Francis Matthews. The two spent nine months on stage together in London in the chiller The Woman In Black.

He's playing Henry VIII. At first Shelley thought he was too young to be king, but is actually round about Henry's age at the time of the play. In one way Shelley is coming home.

He's a Yorkshireman, born in Leeds although the rest of the family come from York. He still has an aunt, May, now 94, living in York and who came to see him in Private Lives.

Older brother Francis went into acting, but Shelley didn't want to follow in his footsteps. "I thought it was daft, so I went to university, got into the drama society and then trained properly as an actor," he recalls.

He says he's always been regarded as a classical actor, something that his CV bears out.

One of his more unusual Shakespeare roles was Antony in an all-male production. Globe artistic director Mark Rylance was his Cleopatra and yes, they had to snog. "I loved it, I didn't have any problems with it at all. He was wonderful,"

he says.

"The Globe is such a wonderful, amazing space to work in despite the helicopters and head and you can see the audience clearer than they can see you."

He used to visit the Theatre Royal as a child after the family moved to Leeds because he still had aunts and uncles living in York.

Not that he's had much time during rehearsals to revisit old haunts. "The thing is to conserve your energy because every decision is yours.

You're in the rehearsal room from dawn to dusk," he says.

* A Man For All Seasons: York Theatre Royal from Saturday until June 28. Box Office: 01904- 623568 or online at www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk