Just A Quickie with Yorkshire actor Reece Dinsdale, who is playing Alan Bennett in Alan Bennett's brace of Untold Stories, Hymn and Cocktail Stick, in Leeds.

YORKSHIREMAN Reece Dinsdale starred in the West Yorkshire Playhouse's debut production, Wild Oats, in 1990.

Further appearances followed in The Playboy Of The Western World, The Revenger's Tragedy and Visiting Mr Green, but the last of those was 14 years ago. Now the hiatus has ended with his invitation to play Alan Bennett in the regional premiere of the Leeds playwright's Untold Stories.

Simple things make the past come flooding back, notes Bennett, and in Untold Stories it is the hymns of his childhood and a tub of forgotten cocktail sticks found at the back of his parents’ kitchen cupboard that breach the dam.

Through his double bill of plays, Bennett explores the values, dreams and difficulties that shaped his family life. In Hymn, he remembers his Armley butcher father through stories of concerts at Leeds Town Hall and his attempts to teach Alan the violin. In the highly personal, highly affectionate Cocktail Sticks, he recalls his "ordinary" parents, Mam’s social aspirations and their final years.

Dinsdale tells the story behind his role in Untold Stories, as Charles Hutchinson reports.

What led you to the role of Alan Bennett in Untold Stories, Reece?

"James Brining, the artistic director of the West Yorkshire Playhouse, had seen me playing the central role of the late Dewsbury MP Walter Harrison in This House at the National Theatre. We were in discussions to do something at WYP for later in the year when his associate director, Mark Rosenblatt, had the idea that I might be perfect for Alan Bennett in Untold Stories, which was already in the planned season ahead and which Mark was directing. I read it and didn’t need much persuading to accept the offer. A challenge, no doubt, but beautifully written stuff and quite an honour to be asked to play the great man, especially as part of his 80th birthday tribute."

Is it right you first met Alan after he cast you in the film A Private Function?

"Yes, I worked with Alan 30 years ago when I played PC Penny, a member of the local bungling police force, in A Private Function. Alan had seen me in Red Saturday, a play at the Royal Court Theatre in London, and I believe was responsible for my casting.

"On my very first day of rehearsals, with such luminaries as Maggie Smith, Michael Palin and Denholm Elliot in the room, Alan came straight over to me and said ‘You don’t know who I am, but I know who you are’, which immediately put me at my ease. Such a kind thing to do. Jim Carter, who was playing alongside me, christened him ‘Continuity Giggles’ as he was forever making us laugh and giggle on set in his own dry and inimitable way. Good memories."

What is it like playing Alan Bennett ?

"Daunting, terrifying, exhausting, but very exciting. I just hope I can do him justice.

How would you describe Untold Stories, both its structure and subject matter?

"It's really two pieces in one, Hymn and Cocktail Sticks. They began life at the National Theatre some18 months ago and proved so successful that they transferred to the West End under the title of Untold Stories as they cover much of the ground in Alan’s autobiography of that name.

"Hymn finds Alan alone on stage with a string quartet regaling us with stories of his love of music and his failed attempts as a child to master the violin. Cocktail Sticks finds him evoking the spirits of his mother and father in an attempt to understand his childhood in Leeds and what it is that made him. Very, very funny, and with no small amount of pain and pathos either.

"It’s quite a challenge. I shall just have to take a very big breath and just jump in."

What are your memories of appearing in past West Yorkshire Playhouse shows?

"I had the honour, some 24 years ago, of playing the leading role of Jack Rover in [John O'Keeffe's] Wild Oats in the very first production in the newly built theatre. At the time, my father, a proud Yorkshireman, likened it to ‘being asked to open the batting for Yorkshire’. Wonderful!

" I returned subsequently over the following ten years to do other terrific roles, but for a variety of reasons I haven’t appeared at the theatre for some fourteen years! Such a warm and exciting place to work, I’m absolutely delighted to be asked back. I very much feel part of the furniture."

Alan Bennett's Untold Stories, Hymn and Cocktail Sticks runs at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, until June 21. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or at wyp.org.uk


Did you know?

Untold Stories features a score by film soundtrack composer George Fenton, performed live at the West Yorkshire Playhouse by the Ligeti Quartet.