The Royal National Theatre eagerly and protectively awaits the title and production of Mike Leigh’s new play, as do we, excited by the mystery and fascination of it all. Will it cause a tempest, flooding the South Bank venue with honour or derision?

“I want you to get an interview with Mike Leigh!” The assertion in my editor’s voice told me he wasn’t kidding. I should have realised then that I was in for a rough write, but buoyed by the confidence suddenly bestowed upon me, I naively skipped out of the office, only to be met head on by lightning, thunder and an unholy summer afternoon deluge that instantly killed the spring in my step, reducing not only my soddened sneakers but my enthusiasm for this assignment into an amorphous squelching mass.

After floating down Brick Lane I washed up inside the entrance of a dimly lit bohemian café and slumping onto an overripe leather sofa, not keen to be used as a nappy, I slurped through a strong, bitter cappuccino, murdered some lung cells with a crude roll-up, assessed my thoughts and when my lights finally switched themselves back on, I’d found I’d come up against a brick wall, and a damp one at that. I don’t think being in Brick Lane had any coincidence or connection.

To what extent the sobering rain, coffee and properties of smoked tobacco leaf, helped kick-start the luminous realisation that I hadn’t a chance in HELL of getting an interview with Mike Leigh, based on what knowledge I possessed of this British auteur, I’ll never know.

But I certainly know now. “He doesn’t do interviews and has told us, even, to respect his working methods during this period. In fact, he’s not even working in any of our rehearsal spaces…etc etc,” informed one of the marketing staff at the Royal National Theatre on London’s Southbank, where Leigh will, on the 15th September, present his dramatic piece, a full length play, something he hasn’t done in more than a decade. The natural process is to request a ‘press pack’ but I didn’t feel there was any point. The piece is currently billed as A New Play (working title only) by Mike Leigh, for the Cottesloe stage.

Leigh was once quoted as saying, “As long as I’m making movies I’m very happy to have nothing to do with the theatre. I find it boring and sterile.” What has revived his interest, I wonder. Intrigue arises then for anyone who is familiar with the clandestine modus operandi of this seemingly quiet and demur man, whose award winning films usually bellow with refreshing depth and imagination that belies his seniority of 62 years; films such as Secrets and Lies, Naked and most recently Vera Drake.

Born in Salford, Lancashire in 1943, Leigh was a doctors’ son of Russian origin, whose grandfather, a miniaturist painter had the name, Lieberman who then changed it to Leigh when he emigrated in 1902. The 40’s and 50’s saw Leigh’s interest develop on a diet of Hollywood and British films, then later the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (for acting studies), served his purposes, as well as the Camberwell School of Art, London International School of Film Technique, the Central School of Art and Design and experimental theatre for the BBC in 1970.

We know that the characters of his play will be well rounded, with the creation of an atmosphere that really does exist, with everything to know about the characters and their lives, the key factor to this being extensive research and improvisation.

One can only imagine the rehearsal process Leigh is subjecting his actors to at the moment. The devising of a theatrical piece, any actor will tell you, is demanding, self-sacrificing and soul stripping. Here it could both be a blessing and a curse in the hands of a great director, some say the greatest living British director, and the third greatest of all time after Alfred Hitchcock and Michael Powell.

The pressure must be inconceivable even for Leigh himself who has to find the strength to establish trusting relationships with each individual cast member, then intuition and navigational dexterity to guide them as a newly formed family back to shore from a monstrous sea of words and ideas laden with the sumptuous treasure of a story to tell. The cast are: John Burgess, Ben Caplan, Allan Corduner, Adam Godley, Caroline Gruber, Nitzan Sharron, Samantha Spiro, Alexis Zegerman

Past treasures include Abigail’s Party, a slice of 70’s suburban boredom, also made for TV starring Alison Steadman. Other plays include A Great Big Shame, Greek Tragedy, Smelling A Rat, Goose Pimples, Stacy, Silent Majority, Babies Grow Old and Bleak Moments. The Royal National Theatre eagerly and protectively awaits the title and production of Mike Leigh’s new play, as do we, excited by the mystery and fascination of it all. Will it cause a tempest, flooding the South Bank venue with honour or derision? Either way, more rain is coming.

And if my story seems to have an aqueous resonance to it, maybe I’m still waterlogged from the elemental deluge I encountered, but if Leigh’s work is anything to go by we are in for a treat like a good fresh bitter cappuccino, something to stir the senses and light up our conscience.

The Play runs at the Cottesloe Theatre until 31st January 2006.