STEVE PRATT talks to actor Zach Lee about creating a play involving a fake charity for a dying child where truth and fiction can easily become blurred.

A PUBLICITY photo shoot in York for a new play about a charity collection scam proved a real eye-opener for actor Zach Lee. In The Derby McQueen Affair, he plays Tom, one of a group of friends who invent a dying child and con the public into supporting a fake charity.

"There were four of us standing there and the two on the end had tins with the girl's face on them when a woman came up and dropped money in, " he recalls.

That proved that Nick Lane's drama - being premiered at York Theatre Royal - isn't that far-fetched. "The three friends are struggling to find money. Tom's girlfriend works collecting for charities and goes on about how no one gives reasons or looks where they're putting their money, " says Lee.

"So he creates this young girl to maybe get together two grand to pay off some bills. The scheme takes on a force of its own and becomes a massive con."

He's worked several times with Lane, who was last seen in York performing his adaptation of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, and was directed by him in Hull Truck productions of The Glass Menagerie and Frankenstein.

Lee, who comes from Blackburn, was a late starter in acting. "I was fed up drifting around, not doing anything really, " he explains. "Me and a girlfriend decided we'd change and wrote down a list of things to do. I ended up acting and she became a masseuse."

He auditioned for drama college, admitting that "I didn't have a clue or know what I was doing". He won a place but feels he didn't really start learning until he'd left and was "working with decent people".

His first job with Hull Truck, a company he'd always wanted to work with, arose through being told, through a friend, about someone dropping out of a production. Following that, he appeared in John Godber's Bouncers, again in a role left vacant after an actor dropped out.

"I've done lots of different stuff, I've been quite lucky" says Lee. "No one casts me as the handsome lead because of how I look, but it's been really good."

He already knows what he'll be doing after The Derby McQueen Affair - going to Australia to get married and settle there. His girlfriend is an Aussie.

"I've just been over there to sort everything out, " he says. "I set up loads of meetings and got to meet the sort of people you'd never meet in this country. It was absolutely amazing.

"I will miss life here, but it's a better quality of life in Australia."

Published: 10/06/2004