Northern Broadsides’ artistic director Barrie Rutter follows his acclaimed performance as industrialist John Rutherford in Jonathan Miller’s production of Rutherford and Son, which was shown at the Palace last year, by directing and appearing in a new play, An August Bank Holiday Lark. Written by Coronation Street star Deborah McAndrew, the play is about the impact of the First World War on a rural community in North East Lancashire. He talks to Steve Pratt.

What were the origins of An August Bank Holiday Lark?

At a Northern Broadsides board meeting about five years ago our-then chairman said 2014 marked the centenary of the start of the First World War and asked if we should mark it. As soon as he said it I quoted An August Bank Holiday Lark which is a line from a Philip Larkin poem – one that I did in my one-man show. I put the commission out to a writer (Deborah McAndrew) and this is what she came up with.

What was your brief for the play?

I didn’t want to dictate to her from the off about her play but we both agreed it was not going to be a play about ’it’s grim up north and we are going to the trenches and die’. That is one of the prevailing images of the First World War but it was a lot more complex. Austria, for instance, agreed to fight with Germany, but said can we make announcement after we get the harvest in? In this country young men said at once, ’I will sign up’. It was that sort of naivety.

You are directing and acting in the play - why’s that?

It’s a common thing and is obviously a lot cheaper for the company if I can do two jobs in these times of stretching money. I like the combination of acting and directing. The parts for me are not so obvious as they were 10 or 12 years ago when I was younger and fitter, but with a new play I have to be written for.

Who do you play?

John Farrar, a widower and squire of the village Morris Men. The story is set in a mill village around 1914 and is basically a Romeo and Juliet story about two people from socially warring families. They fall in love and are parted by the war. It’s fictional but what happens is just as real. There are lots of laughs. It’s a very good comedy. Even in warfare there are comic elements. But at heart it’s a simple Romeo and Juliet story affected by bigger events outside the village

Was it hard finding actors who could clog dance?

All of us men have got to clog dance at various levels. Some have to be simply excellent, but all have to be quite good. That makes the audition process quite difficult. You can get someone whose performance is all right, but his dancing looks like it’s being poured out of buckets. I am a bit more of a spectator in the play. I will be dancing, but not as much as those who are supposed to be good dancers.

What’s the attraction of using clog dancing in productions, as you often do?

It’s that percussive nature. Homer describes the clatter the Satyrs made and he thought that sounded like clog dancing. It’s a percussive sound.