A Shepherd's role

IT'S no surprise that well-known UK actor Simon Shepherd should have made a third recent visit to Hollywood's Oscar ceremonies. After all, the ceremony is a mecca for the great and good of the acting world. What is unusual is that all three visits were because his wife, Alexandra Byrne - not a name we're familiar with - had been nominated.

Simon had just started an director-actor tour of Yasmina Reza's dazzlingly funny play Art - which plays Durham's Gala Theatre from Monday - when Alexandra's costume designs for the Johnny Depp movie, Finding Neverland, were nominated.

"My wife didn't win, but she's been nominated before for Elizabeth (which starred Cate Blanchett) and for Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet," says the actor, who admits he's becoming an old hand at facing the red carpet. It was fun and the parties were great and you really do stand in a limo queue rubbing shoulders with major movie stars and saying 'golly gosh, even they have to wait here after the Oscars because of the security'."

Simon's feet have hardly touched the ground since early January rehearsals because he also had to prepare an understudy for the tour while he was away in the US. Slightly jet-lagged, the 48-year-old's just flown back to England and arrived in Exeter and is about to take to the stage as Serge in Art, the man who buys a £20,000 white painting and creates a three-way comic row between friends.

Simon played the West End and toured three years ago and was tempted back by the chance to direct. "It's a play I love but the reason for re-visiting something - and I've never done a play twice - was the chance to direct. My main role is casting. Last time I had Philip Franks and Leigh Lawson and this time I've got an equally good cast of Michael Garner (who is best-known to TV fans from London's Burning) and Russell Boulter (BBC's Holby City). With Michael, I'd played Guildenstern to his Rosencranz about 15 years ago at Oxford. I only knew Russell by reputation but the three of us get on really well, which is the most important thing."

With his directing head on, Shepherd confesses he'd hate people to be put off by the odd expletive uttered as the three friends of 15 years finally start expressing their feelings about each other. "I do think you need that kind of language. The f-word is not used in an aggressive way and it's a very passionate play, but I know if my mum was around today she'd have found it a bit naughty," he says.

Simon's mother was born in Whitley Bay and he still has several relatives in Gosforth, Newcastle, so he's delighted to be making a theatre debut at Durham because it gives him an opportunity to visit his family. "I live near Bath, so the only time I get to meet relatives from the North normally is at weddings and funerals. As I've attended two recent funerals I think I prefer to see them on neutral territory because I'm very fond of them," adds Simon, who rates the North-East coastline as one of the best places to visit in Britain. "I'm really looking forward to bringing this play to the North-East because we've had such a great send-off in the West Country," he says.

So if you gave Simon £20,000 would he buy the painting that causes so much strife in the play?

"I'm going to sit on the fence on that one. If I had £20,000 to spend, I think I would have other things to buy first before a white painting because I've got four kids. The public knows Simon from popular productions like ITV's Peak Practice and the Catherine Cookson adaptation, Tilly Trotter, and he worries about people being put off by the play's title - Art.

"It's actually not a play about art," he explains. "The painting is a catalyst for this hilarious dissection of the friendship between three men. The audience absolutely crack up when they go too far. "It's not pretentious, but a biting human comedy which is more like a sitcom... so if that gets them in, then sell it as that," he jokes.

* Art is at Durham's Gala Theatre from Monday until Saturday. Box Office: 0191-332 404.

Published: 05/03/2005