SIMON Callow breezes into the bar at Newcastle's Theatre Royal having just rendered an acting masterclass in a new adaptation of Peter Shaffer's dark, yet compelling play Equus.

He plays Martin Dysart, an overworked provincial psychiatrist, who is confronted with his most disturbing case when introduced to Alan Strang, a 17 year-old boy who has inexplicably blinded six horses with a metal spike. Callow has been fascinated by the play ever since he watched the original production back in 1973, at the Old Vic.

"I had no idea what to expect but it was just electrifying, on every level it was thrilling," he says. "I went to see Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe at their first night in the West End and they were both very good, but when I was watching Richard's performance I thought 'actually there's another way of playing this and I'd like to
try it', so I made it known that I'd like to do it if there was going to be another tour."

Such is Callow's standing in the acting world that as soon as he expressed an interest, such a tour was quickly forthcoming.

He would probably baulk at the suggestion, but Callow is a natural heir to such venerated British stage actors as Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and the late Paul Scofield, a man he describes as "limitlessly talented".

It was Olivier, in fact, who inadvertently helped Callow's acting career take-off.

"I wrote Laurence Olivier a letter when he was running the National Theatre at the Old Vic, saying how remarkable it was and he wrote back by return of post and said, 'if you like it so much, come and work here, there's a job in the box office', so I did."

It was a decision that changed his life. "This was the first time I'd ever met actors in my life, but suddenly I thought maybe I could become an actor."

At the age of 19, he came to acting relatively late and confesses he wasn't a natural. "I went to university and the moment I started to act, I realised how terrible I was at it, so I left and went to drama school."

But from such unremarkable beginnings he has forged a career almost without equal in terms of scope and prolificity.

As well as a stage career spanning more than 30 years, he has directed plays by the likes of Willy Russell and Jean Cocteau, along
with countless operas, many of which were based on his own translations.

He has appeared in numerous films, most notably as Schikaneder in Amadeus and a decade later as Gareth in Four Weddings and a Funeral, while also finding the time to write several books, including biographies of Charles Laughton and Orson Welles. So what drives this latter-day Renaissance Man?

"I've always felt somewhere in the back of my mind, and it must come from my childhood, that I was put on this earth to fulfil whatever talents I had. My mother was a very religious woman and she believed very much the parable of the talents and that you ought to make the most of them."

There are many talented people around, but not many take the risks Callow does. "I can't resist the learning and the only way you can ever learn is by doing," he says, pondering the question.

"But there are things I know I can't do at all. Although oddly enough, for a long time I said that I could never sing but having sung in a couple of things now I rather like it.

"The thing that's made my life a bit of a burden is that as far as work is concerned I'm very promiscuous, I'll do anything, but I'm also a perfectionist. So even though I'm quite likely to agree to do things, once I start doing something then I can't leave it alone. So when I unthinkingly agreed to write a biography of Orson Welles, it's ended up being three volumes and has taken me 20 years."

He's working on the third and final volume of his Welles biography and despite the time it's taken, he clearly revels in the challenge it poses.

"In a way, a biography is a very suitable medium for an actor to write because it's a character and you have to think yourself into the character," he explains.

And although he never met Welles, he believes that could have been a blessing.

"I'm glad I didn't in a way, because it would have made it harder for me to write because almost everyone who met Welles fell under
his spell and I feel as though I know him, possibly better than he knew himself."

At the age of 58 and approaching what some might call veteran status, Callow says there are still plenty of characters he'd like to play, such as King Lear and Shylock. But aside from these titans of the stage, is there anything else he yearns to tackle?

"What I have to fight very hard is this desire to write a book about English conductors from the 20th century, I've longed to do this for a long time," he says wistfully.

"I'm interested by two things, one is that conducting fascinates me and I've followed conductors for years and lots of my friends are conductors, and secondly I'm interested in Britishness and what makes British conductors, like Sir Thomas Beecham, Leopold Stokowski, Sir Malcolm Sargent and Sir Adrian Boult, so very different from any others.

"But I have to not write that because it would take too long."

Not that he's about to rest on his laurels. "I'm directing an opera after this, The Magic Flute, I've just finished translating the libretto," he says, as through he's just rattled it off between performances. "Then I'm doing some Shakespeare sonnets in Canada and two Dickens monologues at the Edinburgh Festival."

It's unlikely they'll be anything less than masterful.


Equus is being staged at the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, from April 28 to May 3. Call (01274) 432000.