KARL Haynes is a perfectly nice chap to talk to, but theatre directors think he has the killer instinct.

The actor has played more than his fair share of nasty characters, even in the Sunday night nostalgic, feelgood drama Heartbeat. He's set to show up in that ITV1 series as a drug-dealing killer, selling LSD in the clubs of Whitby, in an episode he filmed at the end of last year.

"I seem to get the killers," he admits. He's currently up to no good in the world premiere of Marcus Romer's stage adaptation of Melvin Burgess' novel Bloodtide for Pilot Theatre at York Theatre Royal, next month.

His character Conor is one of two gang lords ruling London in a post-civil war England. He wants all the power for himself. The story itself is a retelling of the ancient myths and legends of the Volsunga sagas, the inspiration for stories from Lord Of The Rings to Bladerunner.

"Men have dreams of seeing London and England united under their own families. Conor manages to manufacture the chance for that to happen for himself," explains Haynes, who comes from Sheffield.

Romer's stage version uses DVD projection, live webcams and full original soundtrack alongside the actors.

Haynes has worked before with York-based Pilot, mostly recently in a revival of Jim Cartwright's Road. Before that he spent three years, on and off, on tour in Romer's adaptation of Lord Of The Flies, playing another nasty character. He was in the original production at York, the first tour in 1998 and returned to the show to tour three more times.

He doesn't think Bloodtide is going to be as exhausting a show - at least, not for him - as that one. "Lord Of The Flies was a very physical ensemble," he says. "Road wasn't as physical, but the character I played was. There was lots of jumping over and climbing up things."

Other members of the Bloodtide cast will have more to do as some have to shape-shift as creatures that are half-man, half-animal.

Haynes has known about the project for some time, since Romer began working on it when the pair were involved on a previous show. "I'd read the book and it appealed to me, and it fits into the house style that Marcus works with," he says.

"Melvin Burgess does have a strong audience, mainly in their late teens. He's quite involved with the whole thing. It will be nice to meet him and see what he thinks of what we've done to his work."

He likes that house style, along with Pilot's aim to bring in younger theatregoers than usual. "One of the main briefs is to try and develop new audiences for the theatre. I think they're doing well without being patronising," he says.

Haynes has had no formal training beyond a theatre studies degree at college after A-levels. "I fell in with the local Theatre In Education company, who employed me and gave me an Equity card," he recalls.

"I thought about training as an actor but you need so much money to do vocational drama classes that it would have taken a few years. When the Equity contract happened I thought I'd see how it progressed and 11 years later, here I am."

Moving from schools TIE performances on to a "proper" theatre stage in front of older audiences was odd at first. But he wasn't a stranger to York as that was one of the theatres he'd visited on school trips. "It was amazing to get on the stage where you'd seen people work in the past," he says.

By chance, while appearing on stage in Bloodtide in York in the evenings, he'll be filming a new short film, Creep, in the city during the day. Then he's looking forward to seeing the next touring production of Lord Of The Flies.

"It will be very strange because I've been involved with it from the start. I feel very much part of it and it's part of me," he says. "It was physically hard and the tours were long. We were away six months. But it was also the most enjoyable because it had a real ensemble feel."

* Bloodtide opens at York Theatre Royal on February 12 and continues until February 21. Tickets (01904) 623568.

Published: 24/01/2004