In a new version of Bouncers, actor Andy Brady takes on no less than six roles. He talks to Steve Pratt about the challenge.

THE last time actor Andy Brady worked with Harrogate Theatre director Hannah Chissick, he played both a cow and a giant. He also performed a solo tap dance in the pantomime Jack And The Beanstalk.

Now he's being directed by her again and, although he doesn't have to cope with playing an animal and an ogre, he does have more than one character to play.

The cast of four actors in the revival of John Godber's Bouncers don't just play the doormen of the title but all the other people enjoying a Friday night out clubbing and partying.

Les the bouncer is Brady's main role, along with Rosie, who's celebrating her 21st birthday, and a young lad named Kev. Then there are three other minor characters to play too.

Chissick, whose Harrogate production of Godber's Teechers breathed fresh life into the play, is bringing award-winning Bouncers into the 1990s - the era of Cool Britannia, Brit Pop and the Spice Girls. Godber himself did a remix in 1991 but this staging celebrates the entire decade's music and culture.

"I'm playing both men and women, with lots of different accents," says Brady. "There are lots of dance routines, which will be a surprise to the audience. I had seen the play years ago in Coventry, where I'm from, and remember it being brilliant fun. Everyone back home said what a great play it was and a great showcase for an actor."

Brady himself didn't really go clubbing a lot in his teens. "My weekends, although I did go out loads, were to do with drama. I was in amateur societies from the age of 15," he says.

"Then I went to university and the big social event wasn't clubbing but going to the student union. After that I went to drama school, so I suppose I missed out on going out at weekends."

Working with Chissick in pantomime at Derby three years ago was his first job after college. Much of the time since then has been taken up touring in The Rocky Horror Show, playing the nave young hero Brad.

You could almost say it was a role he was born to play. "I remember going to see it at Birmingham Hippodrome and turned up in my usual geeky tank top and in glasses, and everyone said I looked like Brad," he recalls.

The tour ended with a season in London's West End. "It was fun but after 16 months we'd come to the end of it," says Brady. "Bouncers will be a bit like it because you get audience reaction and interaction, you never know what to expect. In a way it's like an adult pantomime." Jonathan Wilkes was playing transsexual Frank 'n' Furter but Brady saw many changes in the narrator, including Christine Hamilton, Rhona Cameron, Kevin Kennedy and Lionel Blair.

By complete contrast, he spent last summer at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London, playing the chief weasel in The Wind In The Willows. "It was nice to do a nasty part," he says.

Originally, Brady became involved in amateur theatre through a friend, knowing that he wanted to get involved in something without being sure quite what exactly. "I was in school plays and it's the whole praise thing - people say you are good and you think, 'I want to do more of this'," he says.

A youth theatre production called United, about a mixed sex football team, transferred to the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry and gave him a taste of performing on a big stage.

So far, he's only done theatre work. "TV is the next step, hopefully," he says. "I'm hoping the casting people from Yorkshire Television will come over and see me in Harrogate. But my ambition is just to carry on working in all aspects of acting."

* Bouncers is at Harrogate Theatre until March 5. Tickets (01423) 502116.

Published: 12/02/2005