OT: The No Man’s Land I suppose is a description of where you can go to in your mind, where you feel you might be safe, because the pain of life is too much. Post traumatic I suppose is what comes up, is hinted at constantly, never explained. And with the aid of alcohol you have the central person who’s in this house, who cannot bear the pain of his existence.. and so he’s encouraged by these two younger men to stay in No Man’s Land, rather than reality..

IH: It’s a Harold Pinter play, so the audience kind of know what they are in for, but come the half way point people were confused, were they meant to be?

DM: I think because there is so much in this play, it’s so dense and there are so many themes hidden under so many layers of character, that people can be confused. Because I think sometimes there’s a pressure on people .. ‘I need to understand this, I need to get it’, and actually I think audiences just need to relax a little bit , sit back and just absorb what’s happening …. and I think that’s when person ‘a’ will take something from it, person b will take something else, person c will say the play is about this, person d will say the play is about this..

IH: And that’s the beauty of it

DM: That’s what’s so great about it, actually every night there’s a slightly different performance, a slightly different theme I would say comes out stronger than any other

IH: Once you’re introduce the humour, the laughter, the relaxed atmosphere of us all being comfortable in these two giants’ presence..is very sharply removed and we’re terrified by you two even shaking your hands as you came into..it’s stayed with me.. are you glad? are you proud? is that what it’s meant to do?

OT: I think it is, its our job you have to change the play you have to tip it on its head when we come on, because it’s not explained who we are, we could be two guys who just walked in off the street

IH: How’s it been then have you enjoyed this experience? How is it working with the two giants as well

DM: We are like a happy family and with Sean the director as well we had four weeks rehearsal and the chemistry was there from the get-go, that comes from Ian and Patrick and from Sean being so welcoming and open and generous to myself and Owen

IH: So what did you think when you got the call?

DM: I was pinching myself

OT: It’s a bit of a privilege really isn’t it

DM: totally

OT: to have such stature and calibre and to be invited to join

IH: I could say that about you two though, you are the younger versions maybe?

[laughter]

OT: Yeah, I think I’d love to play Hirst

DM: I’d love to play Spooner, yes. One day, one day.