Three years studying drama at Manchester University followed. “My
parents thought that it was a good idea to go to university, in the
classic sense of something to fall back on and finish off my education
properly. I didn’t have a problem with that.” Streatfeild’s family has
lived in the village of Chiddingstone since the 16th century, but none
of his immediate relatives had anything to do with the theatre. As a
Manchester student he directed a highly inventive student production of
As You Like It which I remember seeing on the Edinburgh Festival fringe
in the mid-1990s.
But he was still not sure if he was good enough for a
career on the professional stage. It was only when he joined the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art after university that his hopes of
turning acting into a career began to take shape. “Three years at
Manchester followed by three years at RADA seems an inordinately long
time, but my feeling was that lots of small steps were better than one
big one. If I had found an agent after Manchester I probably wouldn’t
have gone to RADA, but I didn’t. For me a proper preparation was
important, coming from outside the profession in terms of my family.”
Then came what appeared to be a stroke of luck, but was probably
just a recognition of his talent. After RADA his agent got him an
interview with the RSC, who invited him to audition for Michael Boyd,
who was about to cast a production of Henry VI.
“So I left RADA and went straight to the RSC, which was miraculous.
I played young Clifford in the Henry VI trilogy in 2000 and first
murderer in Richard III and understudied Richard. It was great to leave
drama school and go straight into a big drama company where you could
use all the skills you had been desperately practising. It felt
marvellous…and to be paid!” Then came a Pinter play at the Royal Court
and a chorus part in Sir Peter Hall’s National Theatre production of
The Bacchai using masks.
“We did that in a 15,000 seat stadium in
Greece at Epidauros, which was a seminal experience.” He followed this
with film and television dramas. Then came a breakthrough lead role in
the West End, the part of Captain Stanhope in R.C. Sherriff’s First
World War play Journey’s End. “It was the first time I’d had a lead and
it was in the West End, a packed house and all the leading critics.
That was the first time the play had been on my shoulders.
