A CASUALTY of war - the Wars of the Roses - was causing problems but actor-manager Barrie Rutter, the moving force behind Northern Broadsides, wasn't about to admit defeat.

Far from it. The temporary absence of one of his three leading men wasn't about to upset the theatre company's most ambitious project yet, Shakespeare's Wars Of The Roses.

Rutter has edited four of the Bard's history plays, the Henry VI trilogy and Richard III, into three distinct plays, each taking its title from a monarch, namely Henry VI, Edward IV and Richard III.

The latter marked the company's debut 15 years ago with Hull-born Rutter as Richard III. When we spoke, Rutter reported that the trilogy's Richard and the company's composer, Conrad Nelson, was out of action for a week with a badly gashed knee. He was confident the injury to one of his three kings wasn't an insurmountable problem. There are several in the company who could take over the role, including himself.

It's the latest of the difficulties, both financial and cultural, that he's faced running Halifax-based Northern Broadsides, formed when a National Theatre tour and a TV project both fell through leaving him with free time. His agent suggested forming his own company.

The range of its success may be judged from the fact that his press biography features quotes from such differing sources as Harpers & Queen ("he is the archetypal bluff Yorkshireman, a figure seemingly created in its own image by the land which bore him") and Whatsonstage.com ("if someone ever creates an arts version of Mount Rushmore, they should carve it into the Pennines and chisel Barrie Rutter's imposing features in the foreground").

His stated intention for the company was "Northern voices, doing classical work in non-velvet spaces". Much of the work has been the classics, although last year's repertoire include a new play by Alan Plater and School For Scandal.

Wars Of The Roses began with a conversation with Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Michael Boyd and the idea of staging the trilogy as part of the RSC plan to present all Shakespeare's work in both in-house and visiting productions.

Rutter was happy as this would coincide with Northern Broadsides' 15th birthday. Months later, the RSC announced it intended to do the three Henry VI plays and no longer required the Northern company. One imagines that the plain-speaking Rutter didn't take the news well, as he'd already done the edit, found a co-producer and booked a tour. But Stratford-upon-Avon's loss is Yorkshire's gain - the trilogy is now being produced at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds before touring.

Charting the power struggle between the Houses of Lancaster and York, the plays are an ideal choice for Northern Broadsides as directed by Hull fish worker's son Rutter, who describes himself as "a Rose man by birth and abode and sound".

The trilogy is the company's biggest project to date with a cast of 21 actors. "That in itself is remarkable on the grant we get," Rutter points out. "I don't want pats on the back for it, but I want it acknowledged. No other company with our funding would attempt such a thing."

Inevitably casting has been a nightmare, working out who plays what over three plays so that when people see the trilogy in one day (as they can on Saturdays) they'll see the same performer in the same role in each play.

Rutter never imagined that he'd still be leading Northern Broadsides 15 years after forming it, or even that the company would last longer than a year. In that time, Northern Broadsides has made its mark with the Northern voice, a path Rutter was set along by poet Tony Harrison when he worked in three of his National Theatre adaptations - The Mysteries, The Orestia and The Trackers Of Oxyrhynchus - written for the Northern voice.

Harrison taught him about "using the dignity of my own voice" and opened up the world that led to Northern Broadsides. "It was quite revolutionary back then. You spoke with a Northern accent and it was like you had three heads on your shoulders," he says, adding that the short vowels and granite consonants are ideal for the vicious, venomous words of the Wars Of The Roses.

Rutter is 60 this year but doesn't see himself giving up the company in the near future. "I do love doing it," he says. "There's another world out there where one can probably earn more money but that doesn't bother me. I've never chased riches."

He finds being a director "quite heady stuff" but if he had to choose between acting and directing, he would choose the former. He's spent most of the past 15 years involved in running the company, although on a rare foray into the "outside" world appeared in several series of Kay Mellor's ITV drama Fat Friends.

"Really this is a 52 week a year job. You could do it as an absentee landlord but I have no desire to do that. If I'm not rehearsing, I'm in the office every day," he says.

* Shakespeare's Wars Of The Rose continue at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, until April 22. Tickets 0113 213 7700. The trilogy tours to Newcastle Theatre Royal from June 13-17. Tickets: (0870) 905 5060