Steve Pratt talks to actor-turned director Christopher Luscombe who has three projects which will be seen shortly by North-East and North Yorkshire audiences.

CHRISTOPHER Luscombe is back at Harrogate Theatre, but in a very different guise than the last time. He first trod the boards there as a member of the Cambridge Footlights Revue, later appeared in several repertory productions and was last seen in a dress, playing pantomime dame.

Now he's on the other side of the footlights, having made a name as writer and director as well as actor, in the intervening years. He directs a revival of Alan Ayckbourn's comedy Things We Do For Love, opening this week.

Set in a house divided into three flats, the play focuses on a postman who lives in the basement and fancies Barbara, the single owner of the house, plus Barbara's old school friend Nikki and her fiance Hamish, who inhabit the top floor flat.

Luscombe was asked to direct by Harrogate Theatre's artistic director Hannah Chissick, who directed him in Art in London's West End. "I'd seen the play and loved it, and thought it would be nice to go back to Harrogate because I'd worked there as an actor in the Eighties," he says.

He went to Cambridge to read English and joined Footlights, as a springboard into the business. That's exactly what happened. He went to the Edinburgh Festival with Footlights and, as a result, got an agent and an Equity card.

A few years later, he returned to Harrogate and thinks writing a letter to Andrew Manley, who was then running the theatre, may have got him the job.

His Christmas turn as Dame in Aladdin in 1988 followed as well as understudying Terry Scott in commercial pantomimes. His Widow Twanky in Harrogate was followed by Nurse in Babes In The Wood elsewhere the following year.

Then came seven years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, when he was given the opportunity to write and direct through a show, devised with Malcolm McKee, called The Shakespeare Revue.

"It was originally just a Sunday night charity show in Stratford. I directed because I had to put it together and thought I might as well tell people where to stand," he says.

"Then the show went into the Stratford repertoire, into London and then toured. It grew and grew and I found I was a West End director. I hadn't intended it that way. At the back of my mind, I was interested in directing, but it was purely a pragmatic decision at first." That was a decade ago, but it wasn't until the end of the 1990s that he had a real yearning to direct. He began by adapting and directing the world premiere of Noel Coward's last play, Star Quality, with Penelope Keith. He told the London producer to whom he took the project that, as he'd adapted it, he wanted to direct.

His directing credits since then include Little Shop Of Horrors at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, Home And Beauty in the West End, and the tour of The Importance Of Being Earnest with Wendy Craig.

The latter played recently at Darlington Civic Theatre, where Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black's musical Tell Me On A Sunday, which he's directing on tour, is due soon. Once Things We Do For Love opens in Harrogate, he'll be in Bradford rehearsing ex-Steps singer Faye Tozer in the leading role. Star of the original production, Marti Webb, will be appearing in the Darlington date.

He's also due to direct a tour of George Bernard Shaw's Candida for Oxford Stage Company, which will visit York Theatre Royal.

As a director who also writes, he's very protective of the writing and feels Ayckbourn has nothing to fear from him. "Everything comes from the text and you honour the text. It's a beautifully written play and he's a genius, and am conscious that anything one does not in the script is a terrible mistake," he says.

He feels no desire to appear in the production as well as direct, more than happy "to sit and watch and help them do it".

Acting hasn't got much of a look in lately. "I just love directing. It means when I go back to acting I will really enjoy it," says Luscombe.

He's hoping that "a really wonderful part" will come along. His last role was as Yvan in Art. "That was the most amazing part and that's spoiled me in a way. There aren't many parts as good as that," he adds.

He has no acting parts on the horizon. "I've turned down a couple of things I couldn't do because I was directing," he says. "Because I acted for a long time, directing still seems a novelty. I'm very happy, for the moment, to have directing work stretching ahead."

* Things We Do For Love is at Harrogate Theatre from April 2 to 24. Tickets 01423 502116

* Tell Me On A Sunday with Marti Webb is, Darlington Civic Theatre, May 24-29. (01325) 486555

* Candida tours to York Theatre Royal, July 27-31. (01904) 623568.

Published: 01/04/2004