“Potter was a very physical role and I got to do so many stunts and so many different types of getting hit or falling or climbing up something. There are a couple of very physical moments in Cripple for Billy – one is at the end of the show, and one, a moment early on, where he has to climb down a wall in our production.”

“The fact that I get to do so many different things is one of the parts of my job that make it incredibly fun,” Radcliffe continues. “Maybe the fact of playing one character in one environment for quite a long time built up an energy to want to get out after Potter and grab as many different things as possible; you are constantly learning something new, so you are always in a very receptive state,” he reflects.

“As always, I hope that people who come to see this play get treated to a fantastic story, and hopefully we tell it well.”

“On the surface it’s a very simple story,” notes Radcliffe, “but actually, the intricacies, the twists and turns that Martin creates in these characters’ lives are sometimes shocking, unexpectedly moving or hilarious.”

“It’s such a rare combination to have all those things sitting with each other perfectly, and the tone – the comedy originates in some ways from the cruelty of the characters’ relationship with each other,” the actor explains. “After the first scene, which is quite bruisingly funny in terms of how Billy is treated, I don’t think people will necessarily expect the end of it to be as heart-wrenching as it is.”

“I’ve been a huge fan of Martin McDonagh’s film In Bruges, so I was very excited at the prospect of reading it, but I kept it till the last so I could give the other scripts the same good attention as I would this one,” Radcliffe reports. “My response was just what I thought it would be. It is just such a wonderful, wonderful play, and it was a chance for me to do on stage something I hadn’t really done before, which is a very dark comedy.”

“I was very nervous about the accent because I was the only English actor in the cast,” Radcliffe reports. “But when I got in there I realized that actually nobody from our show is actually from that specific area of Ireland, and this is unlike any other Irish accent.”

“It is never specified in the play exactly what ailment Billy has – you just have clues in the text, which says he has one arm and one leg crippled,” Radcliffe explains. “I arrived, with the help of a friend, at the conclusion that it could be a specific type of cerebral palsy called hemiplegia. And then I worked with a woman who is a vocal coach but who also has that type of cerebral palsy. We worked together, on and off for about three months before rehearsals started, just learning about the condition and the mechanics of it, and how that affects people in everyday life. Most people with this type of cerebral palsy often come up with amazing solutions to problems that I would never have thought of, so it was a really fascinating thing to learn about.”