When We Are Married, York Theatre Royal, March 7 to 29

ON his application letter to become resident director at York Theatre Royal, Jim Hooper named his wish list of plays to direct.

In interview, when pressed further on the subject, he was challenged by artistic director Damian Cruden. "He said there must be one play you want to do with passion - not passion in the play, although there is, but a passion in me to do it," Jim recalls.

The play he chose was When We Are Married, JB Priestley's Yorkshire comedy of marital blister and bliss, written in 1938 on the eve of the Second World War but set in Edwardian times. Jim's production opens next Friday: the first time since August 1985 that the Theatre Royal has presented Priestley's story of scandal besetting a village when the inhabitants discover the vicar is not legally qualified, thus rendering the silver-wedding anniversaries of three couples null and void.

"I've always loved Priestley's plays, especially Time And The Conways, although not so much An Inspector Calls," says Jim, flourishing a newly resplendent beard in a tribute to the Bradford playwright. "I seem drawn ineluctably to plays where characters have a second chance: we all want to have that chance don't we, and that's partly to do with age!" Jim is 53 this year.

He is back in York, enjoying a second opportunity to direct at the Theatre Royal following his decision to return to London rather than retaining his role as resident director.

"It was an open-ended arrangement but I decided I'd now prefer to be a freelance," Jim explains. "Being resident director was a marvellous experience and I learned so much directing Loot, Talking Heads and A Passionate Woman last year, and I love everybody here, but I needed to be back in London where I had things coming up. Everyone has been perfectly fine about it."

So much so that he was asked to direct When We Are Married and hopes further invitations will be proffered.

Latterly, he has been teaching the art of directing at the City Literary Institute in Holborn. "I'd had links with there from many years ago but they hadn't been back to me for 15 years and then suddenly they just asked me to do this directing course," Jim says. "I love teaching, I love acting, I love directing, and the fool that I am, I want to do all three."

Teaching and acting can wait: directing is taking precedence at present, and Jim could not be happier than he is working on a Priestley text in a theatre he holds so dear. "One of the reasons I wanted to do When We Are Married was that it was set in 1908, and the Theatre Royal auditorium was decorated in 1911, so I was keen to do a play of that era that would sit well in that auditorium," he says.

"The first thing that designer Sue Plummer and I did was sit there in the auditorium and just drool at all that velvet!"

Given his enthusiasm for this "terribly funny play that has no fat on it", Jim had a surprising revelation: "I've never seen the play, so the run-through last week was the first time for me, and although Priestley said his plot was ludicrous, I have to say the characters are amazing, and it's a marvellous play to work on," he says. "It's just me: I love old-fashioned plays."

Unlike Stephen Daldry and his radical doll's house version of An Inspector Calls that made its debut at the Theatre Royal in 1989, Jim will not be seeking to shake up When We Are Married.

"I know it sounds sentimental but what I'll be bringing to the play is my love of it. It was very, very seductive to think 'Oh well, should I completely deconstruct it, like that Daldry production, but all I hope to do is find the heart of the piece and the humanity of the writing," says Jim.

"In a way it's not a play about marriage - they're in an age where they cannot get divorced - so I see it as a play about commitment and honouring that commitment."

He might equally be talking about his own work this month.

When We Are Married, York Theatre Royal, March 7 to 29. Box office: 01904 623568.

Updated: 09:19 Friday, February 28, 2003