KATHERINE MacALISTER talks to two familiar faces from TV, Robert Daws and Belinda Lang, about their roles in Michael Frayn’s Alarms and Excursions at the Playhouse.

They are a peculiar pairing, Belinda Lang and Robert Daws. She speaks her mind while he toes the party-line; where he’s effusive she’s abrasive, his approach is laissez faire, her’s disparaging.

Take their attitude to their current play Michael Frayn’s Alarms and Excursions, he laughs and says it’s exhausting. She says “don’t be ridiculous. I’ve never been in anything less exhausting in my life. You should try Shakespeare.”

In fact their relationship is more reminiscent of a spoof TV comedy couple, rather than fellow actors in the numerous parts required for Alarms and Excursions eight playlets. And one suspects the truth in the production lies somewhere between her acerbic observations and his jovial platitudes.

He says the play seems to be going very well, and that the audience has been ‘very supportive”. She says: “I’m just the hired help but yesterday everything went wrong and it was so embarrassing. I can’t bear it when you just have to carry on and pretend everything’s alright.”

Discuss the logistics and Robert says: “It’s one of the things you relish as an actor. Ask any actor, that’s exactly what they want – to be able to play a range of different parts and accents so there’s no complaints at all on that front.”

Of course, Belinda sees things differently. “It’s just boring getting in and out of all those clothes and it’s all very lightweight, there is no emotional journey. But you have to get on top of it as best you can. I suppose you have to be a fan of that sort of thing.”

And Belinda obviously isn’t. “I have my favourites and I think Michael Frayn is absolutely brilliant at observational comedy, humour and behaviour, but where it gets farcical I just go along with it because it’s not my sense of humour.”

Robert puts it more diplomatically: “The scenes are so particular and specific there isn’t much call for emotional depth because you, as an actor, can get in the way. There is a certain simplicity in Michael’s plays. But Michael is also uncompromising in his delivery and his writing is fast and furious yet beautifully structured.”

Off stage Belinda and Robert are also poles apart. While Robert goes home every night to his wife and two young daughters, Belinda is sharing digs with fellow actor Serena Evans and having a summer of fun. Her daughter has just gone to university so she’s spreading her wings a bit.

And while they both have a TV series under their belts, (she 2.4 Children, he The Royal) their futures couldn’t be more different. He has radio and TV work lined up while Belinda is determined to get into directing. “I like acting but I love directing and I want to do more,” she says. “I have taken to it like a duck to water. I don’t know if it’s because I’m bossy or something but I should have done it years ago.

“But I think I’ve suffered from too much good luck in the acting game, if there is such a thing, because I’ve always been busy and I’ve always had work, although not necessarily what I wanted to be doing, so I didn’t really carve out a career as such. I was more happy-go-lucky. But now I think it’s the terror of failure. I’m obsessed with getting it right. What if I was awful?”

But while Belinda’s cup may appear half empty, Robert’s is definitely half full. “The Royals finished last month. We did eight years of it which is a long time but everything comes to an end and it’s time had come. And I’m very fortunate because something always turns up. So next there’s some TV work and then some radio, and that’s the actors life, we have less paranoia than most, but at the same time you don’t take anything for granted. There’s always a fresh challenge and something to grapple with.”

* Alarms and Excursions runs at Oxford Playhouse from August 15 to 20. Box office on 01865 305305 or log on to oxfordplayhouse.com