Roy’s roles

DAVID NEILSON pulls a crumpled wodge of A4 paper from his pocket. It’s the script for his latest theatre project – a photocopy of the dialogue of Kent in King Lear.

The actor best known as Roy Cropper in ITV1’s soap Coronation Street is temporarily abandoning his shopping bag and passion for steam trains to step out from behind the counter of Roy’s Rolls to do a spot of Shakespeare at York Theatre Royal.

He’ll join an all-star cast, headed by another soap favourite, Freddie Jones, from Emmerdale, in a live recording of Shakespeare’s tragedy on stage at the theatre on Sunday.

Proceeds from the rehearsed reading will go towards the theatre’s Access For All campaign to install a lift in the De Grey rooms, making workshops and rehearsal spaces accessible for the whole community. The target is £50,000, with staff running the Scottish Marathon earlier this year to start raising funds.

All the cast – who also include Jones’ actor son Toby Jones, George Costigan, Niamh Cusack, Nicholas Le Provost and Rachel Pickup – are giving their services free.

I caught up with Neilson on the set of Coronation Street during the 50th anniversary launch on Friday. He was carrying the Lear script to make himself familiar with Kent’s lines at every available opportunity, as the actors will have little more than four hours of rehearsal the day before the recording.

He became involved through George Costigan, who starred in Death Of A Salesman at York Theatre Royal and, more recently, did a stint in Emmerdale.

The two actors have been friends for 30 or so years and have worked together before, most recently on a production of Beckett’s Waiting For Godot.

“He’s just done Emmerdale and that was a whole new experience for him. We got together over that and were talking about our experiences,” Neilson recalls.

“We were talking about King Lear, which is like the Everest for actors. ‘When did you do that?’ we asked him. ‘Never done it old boy, never done it’ he said and thought it would be too much for him on stage.

“We said ‘Yeah, but you could do it on the radio’. I’m a great admirer of Freddie Jones and all the stuff he’s done over the years.

“Everyone is going along because of George’s energy to get it off the ground, with Freddie Jones playing the man.

Everyone just wants to be part of it.

“I was very privileged to get the call.

I’ve done a bit of Shakespeare, but the thing is you can always revisit it the older you get. He’s a great writer, a really great writer, and you don’t always realise that early on. It’s something you can go back to and back to – and this particular play, King Lear, is fantastic.”

Neilson produces that bundle of script pages. “So here it is. That’s Kent. He says some wonderful things.”

The event is also celebrating the life in theatre, TV and film of Freddie Jones, who has been a regular in Emmerdale as Sandy Thomas, since 2005. His actor son, Toby, is playing the Fool in King Lear.

Neilson is currently filming the anniversary week episodes of Corrie, when a tram comes off the rails over the viaduct and crashes into the street. The cast, only given their scenes to learn, are unsure who’ll survive the carnage of the 50th anniversary week.

Neilson has his fingers crossed that Roy will live to butter more rolls in the cafe.

“I don’t think I’m central to the story of that week, but I will be involved,” he says. “There is a tick next to my name for the live episode, but everything is subject to change.”

■ The performed reading of King Lear, directed by Polly Thomas, is at York Theatre Royal on Sunday. Arrive at 6pm for the reading at 6.30pm. Tickets £25, include a glass of wine on arrival.