Sacred Heart centres around Patrick and Kate, who have been going out together since the age of 18. Now they are in their late thirties and have two children. Then my character, Jerry, who used to be best friends with Patrick when they were young, suddenly turns up and contrives a meeting with them. Jerry is divorced, no kids, and he’s like a money-making, heartbreaking survivor.

It’s a very contemporary piece of writing – anyone of that age group will recognise the characters – and it’s one of those plays where you have to stay right ’til the end to find out the truth about everyone.

It’s a lovely opportunity for me to work at the Royal Court, one of my favourite theatres. I love its integrity. It’s not about bums on seats. I’ve spent a lot of time during the past two years working in television, where it’s less about what you’re doing and more about how many people are going to watch it, where it’s going to be placed in the schedules, and profit.

This is what I’ve always wanted to do: challenge myself. You know, being an actor on television is relatively easy. You just find your mark, then hit the spot and the cameramen film you. As long as you’ve got some sort of truth in your performance then it will work.

There’s something that’s actually quite unfulfilling about that as an actor. The money’s nice, but I’ve wanted to go back on the stage for a long time. I spent a lot of my early career working in theatre, and I’ve missed it greatly. I had forgotten how much I love working it all out, talking about it – you’ve got so much time. Whereas in television, you just don’t have any time to work out people’s relationships to the nth degree.

Hopefully I’ll have the guts to do more. Of course I might fall flat on my face. But this is about proving something to myself. And it’s great, I’m really excited about it.

Sacred Heart in the right place