Performance schedules mean it's only possible to speak to Barrie Rutter on the telephone.

It's probably just as well.

Rutter, as most people call him, is the very essence of a Yorkshireman: a no-nonsense, plain-talking, gruff Tyke.

Indomitable is the only word for someone who combats his difficulty with Received Pronunciation by setting up a company to perform Shakespeare in his mother accent. So to hear a sigh of resignation from Rutter down the telephone line is a heartbreaking sound. Seeing it close up, face-to-face, would be too much to take.

The reason for this malaise is that the 61-year-old and his 17-year-old company are "no longer sexy".

"Wars of the Roses was the biggest thing done in regional theatre for 20 years and we didn't get one inch of pre-publicity in the national papers," says Rutter.

The Wars of the Roses was the staging in 2006, to celebrate the company's 15th year in existence, of Shakespeare's cycle recording the bloody history of the houses of York and Lancaster.

It was a mammoth undertaking with a cast numbering more than 20. The three productions – Henry VI, Edward IV and Richard III – toured the country and in each venue the company would on specific days stage all three plays back-to-back in a 12-hour marathon.

The ambitious undertaking was impressive and deserved much recognition, which it received when the reviews declared the enterprise a triumph. But Rutter was furious that the national media had not reported on the staging of the trilogy ahead of the performances.

"The arts editors don't want to know, but what can you do about that? They were all off star f****** when (Pete) Postlethwaite did his Tempest, but they don't want to know about one of the biggest theatre events in years," he says.

Rutter is not exactly shy when it comes to publicising his work. His pride in Northern Broadsides is justifiable and it was worthy of national recognition in the Nineties. Shakespeare was supposed to be done in a certain accent, style and by a certain sort of actor. Rutter, the Hull-raised actor, flew in the face of all of this.

"Shakespeare sounds terrific in authentic northern voices," drooled the Daily Telegraph. "The Northern voice, with its short blunt vowels and tactile concrete consonants, makes a sensual meal of language, quite unlike the icky snacking gone in for by some of the more clipped southern accents," dared The Independent.

But that was long ago. The theatre is as subject to fashion as much as any other art form. Northern Broadsides, it would seem, has fallen out of fashion.

Theatre has moved on apace and companies like Kneehigh and Peepolykus, inspired by path-beaters like Rutter, have taken his disregard for convention and created their own theatrical rules and language.

Last year, Rutter and his company staged a new telling of Aristophanes's Lysistrata, in an updated version by Skipton-born writer Blake Morrison.

The play was a wonderful achievement, a terrific script by one of Yorkshire's leading writers and a highly inventive telling from Broadsides.

Rutter reveals the show lost almost £50,000 during its tour.

"That was a very difficult sell to theatres, but when we got audiences in, they loved it," insists Rutter.

This year it seems the company has gone for a safer path, staging Romeo and Juliet, always an easy sell. The play pulls in Shakespeare fans and students who are studying the text as part of their syllabus. Rutter, baulks at the suggestion that it is a safer option.

"There's nothing safe about it. The cast is new and we're sticking to the ethos I've always had, which is that we perform this play as though it's being done for the first time and the audience is seeing it for the first time."

In the case of his Romeo and Juliet – Benedict Fogarty and Sarah Ridgeway – that is literally the case, with both actors making their stage debuts in the production.

"As soon as I heard them speak I knew they would be able to take on the roles," says Rutter.

"Whatever else they can do, you need actors who have the ability to speak whenever you are casting Shakespeare.

"When they came in, I realised straight away that they could play the parts and when I put them together, they looked great and there was a very good chemistry ."

Having directed and appeared in the play several times, one wonders if Rutter would feel uninspired at revisiting it again.

"I'll be honest, I allowed myself some 'boredom time' in rehearsal as I know the play so well, but I never had a chance to get bored. The play has a new designer, a new cast. A new production always brings a new dynamic with it and it's been really interesting to revisit the play."

The autumn will bring a tour from the company with associate director and Rutter's right hand man Conrad Nelson at the helm of a new version of Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist.

"We do need a shot in the arm," admits Rutter.

"But it's not all doom and gloom. We've got brilliant audiences at the Playhouse, with 60 per cent sold before we even get in the building.

"We're doing great work despite the fact that we are so pitifully-funded."

And the future?

"I might be 61, but I can still do f****** good Shakespeare."

Romeo and Juliet, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, Apr 15 to 19. The Mart Theatre, Skipton, May 14 to 17. The Viaduct, Halifax, May 27 to 31.