UP-AND-COMING performer Reece McMahon is a Jekyll and Hyde character in his latest stage role in the York premiere of the Madness musical Our House. The 18-year-old performing arts student takes the leading role of Joe Casey who, on his 16th birthday, decides to impress a girl by breaking into a house. At which point the show, written by Northern playwright Tim Firth and featuring Madness music, splits into two – one strand tells what would happen if he stays, the other if he runs away from the crime scene.

“That’s a challenge for me as a performer because it means I have to portray the two different sides of Joe – Good Joe and Bad Joe. Which Joe he is is signified by my costume, one white and the other black. So there’s a lot of costume changes,” he explains. “The part of Joe is really demanding because you have to be able to sing, dance and act. So it’s an exciting show to be part of.”

Our House is being premiered in this year’s Stage Experience summer theatre school scheme, at the city’s Grand Opera House, which gives young performers the chance to appear in a professionally-created production.

They rehearse and put on the show in just two weeks.

Reece, who has just completed his studies at CAPA performing arts college, in Wakefield, is no newcomer to the stage. He’s been taking part in Stage Experience for 11 years. His debut was playing Monty the mouse in Wind In The Willows. His first show for current Stage Experience director and choreographer Louise Denison was as Fat Sam in Bugsy Malone. She’s also directed him in Guys And Dolls, Footloose and West Side Story. Before starting rehearsals for Our House he was playing Riff in West Side Story at Leeds Carriageworks, in his farewell performance with CAPA.

He began dancing in pantomime at the Grand Opera House after seeing a notice that auditions were being held.

“From there it just escalated. Dancing, singing, acting. I did more musicals, more shows,” he says.

He’s pursuing his ambitions by moving to London for a three-year degree course at London Contemporary Dance School.

Our House introduced him to Madness. “I knew they were a massive British band and knew a couple of songs like Our House and of Suggs but it’s not really my era. But after listening to their kind of music I love it. We’re sitting here now with Madness music playing and I just want to get up and dance. Their music is infectious.”

Musical director Adam Laird has done West Side Story, Fiddler On The Roof and Footloose in York in past years but Stage Experience is unlikely to feature his favourite musical The Music Man. “It’s the show that got me interested in music, but nobody wants to do it. It’s box office death,” he says.

  • Our House, York Grand Opera House. July 31-Aug 2. Box office 0844-8713024 and atgtickets.com/york