BILL Champion last appeared in a Neil Simon play in 1997.

"That was the first show I did here," he says, in a lunchtime break from rehearsals for Laurie Sansom's production of I Ought To Be In Pictures at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

Humorous, honest and tender, this rarely performed comedy will be staged in Scarborough from this week on various dates through the summer season until July 3.

Described as a hidden gem by Sansom, I Ought To Be In Pictures is billed as a charming portrait of an unlikely family reunion, set against the backdrop of 1980s' Hollywood, where wannabe Libby has hitchhiked from New York to seek her fame, fortune and father, screenwriter Herb.

Herb - the role played by Bill Champion - had abandoned his family 16 years earlier, and Libby soon discovers he is a writer with a block who has trouble coming to terms with his new paternal role. Yet does Libby really want to be in pictures or does she have an ulterior motive?

Bill is savouring a rare encounter with the work of Simon. "Before They're Singing Our Song, I think I last did a Simon play at drama school. His plays seem to have slipped my net but I do love them," he says.

"He has that attribute, like Alan Ayckbourn, of the humour coming out of the underlying situations. What you have to fight, because the dialogue is so fast and witty, is the risk of coming across as glib."

Bill has appeared in Scarborough premieres of Ayckbourn's GamePlan, FlatSpin, RolePlay and Comic Potential and says the same principles apply to playing the comedy of both Ayckbourn and Simon. "You go for the truth. Having worked out who the character is, you go for the truth of that person in each situation they face," he says.

"As with any comedy, the characters don't know they are in a play; for them, the situations are real. Just as we all like to think our lives are high drama and we rarely see ourselves being egocentric or ludicrous, because we always think we're doing things for the right reasons. That's why comedy as well written as this is such a joy to play."

There are differences, he says, between playing Ayckbourn and Simon roles.

"Stylistically, they're very different. The rhythm of Simon's writing is faster and so you have to be more volatile in your performance to make it work. With Alan's plays, a lot of the acting is focused on what they're not saying, in the yawning chasms of silence, because the English don't fill in the gaps, whereas Americans always come up with something else to say next.

"As a nation, we are non-communicative and a lot of the tragic elements of Alan's work come out of that inability to relate to each other, while the comedy comes out of the embarrassment of not being able to express ourselves."

Bill will be experiencing those pauses pregnant with meaning when he begins rehearsals on Ayckbourn's 20th anniversary revival of A Chorus Of Disapproval next month. He will be playing Guy, the new recruit who upsets the applecart in an amateur musical production. "As a friend said to me, 'Ah, Guy, he's the vacuum at the centre of the piece'. It's true," he says. "He's typically English, being too polite to a fault."

For tickets, ring 01723 370541.

Updated: 09:04 Friday, May 14, 2004