OLIVIER Award-winning actor and television show host Matthew Kelly is to make his second appearance at York Theatre Royal in an Alan Bennett play from August 30.

He will star opposite David Yelland in the first revival of The Habit Of Art, having performed alongside his son Matthew Rixon in the Leeds playwright's Kafka's Dick in 2001. "17 years ago! Scary biscuits!" says Matthew

Premiered at the National Theatre in 2009, Bennett's play is being staged by York Theatre Royal and The Original Theatre Company in a touring production that premieres in York.

The storyline is built around a fictional meeting between York-born poet W H Auden and composer Benjamin Britten and explores friendship, rivalry and heartache and the joy, pain and emotional cost of creativity.

Bennett's structure takes the form of a play within a play as actors Fitz, Henry, Tim and Donald rehearse a play called Caliban’s Day under the direction of stage manager Kay and in the presence of the playwright, Neil. In Caliban’s Day, a fictitious meeting occurs in 1973 in Auden’s (Fitz) rooms at Oxford not long before he dies. Britten (Henry) has been auditioning boys nearby for his opera Death In Venice and arrives unexpectedly: their first meeting in 25 years after falling out over the failure of their opera Paul Bunyan.

York Press:

"I love Alan Bennett's writing. It's witty, it's funny, and it never talks down to the audience," says Matthew Kelly. Picture: Michael Wharley

"I hadn't seen the play but was very aware of it because Richard Griffiths, who was in the first production, was at college with me – and we had the same agent – and in fact the week he died I started rehearsals for The History Boys.

"We’ve always been very close and actually his wife has been lovely about it because I said I hope you don’t mind I keep doing Richard’s parts. She was very kind and said I can’t think of a worthier successor."

Matthew did Kafka's Dick for a second time five or six years ago in Bath, again with Rixon, and is savouring his latest chance to enjoy Bennett's language. "I love his writing. It's witty, it's funny, and it never talks down to the audience, though it's very intelligent; it never leaves you outside the story, as it's intellectually hospitable and Bennett can make you laugh and cry almost at the same time," he says.

In Bennett's elaborate edifice for The Habit Of Art, Kelly plays Fitz, the actor who plays Auden; Yelland plays Henry, the actor playing Britten. "The play within a play gives a fantastic opportunity to do some great theatrical jokes, but also comment on the fictitious meeting of Auden and Britten, who fell out in 1942, when Auden wrote Britten a letter, which is explored in The Habit Of Art. It's said that when Britten fell out with people, they were dead to him, so it's a marvellous thing that Bennett has done in bringing them together in his play."

Is an actor playing an actor playing a real person confusing? "No, it actually clarifies things. It’s a very clever device because it means you can be funny about what you do, you can comment on it and you can explain stuff. You can come out of the play; you can explain things which are difficult:"

York Press:

"It's a marvellous thing that Bennett has done in bringing Auden and Britten together in his play," says Matthew Kelly. Picture: Michael Wharley

The Habit Of Art brings together three great talents, says Matthew. "What’s wonderful about Bennett is not only have you got the finest composer of our time and the finest poet of our time, but you also in my opinion have the greatest playwright of our time," he says.

"So you’ve got all those words being sewn together by our greatest playwright who’s kind, accessible, also very erudite and talks about sex in a very earthy way. He also gives a voice to the 'unregarded', so that people who don’t have a voice – in this case the rent boy – get the final word."

Has Matthew ever met Bennett? "Now here’s the thing. We were hoping he would come to York [for Kafka's Dick] because he lives in Leeds, it’s only a hop and a skip, but he didn’t come. A couple of years later, I met him at Heathrow in the domestic terminal – which sounds like a Bennett line – I don’t know where he was going, I was going to Aberdeen," he recalls.

"I spotted him but he came up to me and he apologised for not coming to the York production, which I thought was a splendid thing to do. Years later, when I did The History Boys in Sheffield and then Kafka’s Dick again in Bath, on both those shows he sent champagne and a good luck postcard. He always knows what’s going on and he’s terribly kind and encouraging, which I love."

The play's title, by the way, comes from Auden. "He said he had the habit of art, 'needing to write everyday or else who am I?'. It gave him his identity," says Matthew.

He reckons he is "sort of the same".

York Theatre Royal and The Original Theatre Company present The Habit Of Art, York Theatre Royal, August 30 to September 8, excluding September 2 and 3, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm matinees, September 1 and 8 and 2pm, September 6. A post-show discussion will take place on September 5. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk