Fresh from receiving his fifth Academy Award nomination for Another Year, Mike Leigh is back at the Hampstead Theatre, directing his 1979 play Ecstasy. Mike has never revisited one of his plays before and is returning to the stage after a five year absence, so it’s fitting he should choose the place where he has had so many successes.

Mike says of the production: “How delightful to be back at Swiss Cottage in a wonderful new theatre in Ed Hall’s first season, restaging Ecstasy with Alison Chitty, who designed the original.

“I have such fond memories of working at the old Hampstead Theatre where Abigail’s Party, Ecstasy, Goose Pimples and Smelling A Rat first happened. Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent and Stephen Rea were among the brilliant cast back in 1979, and around that time the equally talented young cast in this revival were all being born.”

Sinéad Matthews, who takes the role of Dawn in the new production of Ecstasy, says Mike has been spending long hours in the theatre with his new cast.

“This is the first time he’s directed a play from a script,” says Sinéad. “Even though it’s his play, he has never done it this way before because he normally starts with nothing. His process is you create and build your character from scratch, you decide where they were born, where they went to school, what their favourite food is and create your own back story around that.

This will be Sinéad’s third time working with Mike, who spotted her during her third year at RADA. Her first professional job was in Vera Drake and she went on to work with Mike on Happy-Go-Lucky.

Sinéad tells me she read Ecstasy when she was 16 and fell in love with the story. “They were like the people I knew, working class and from the same sort of world.

“My character, Dawn, is a real force of nature. She’s got three children and is constantly on the go, but she’s very caring towards her family and her husband. They don’t have a lot of money but they love having a laugh, a drink and a dance. ”

Unlike her larger-than-life character, Sinéad has suffered from shyness in the past. “I had a stammer while I was growing up, so I thought acting would be impossible, but there was never anything else I wanted to do. Then I learned that when you’re playing a character you can use different vocal rhythms and speech patterns. Each has it’s own voice, which is attractive when you’ve grown up thinking you don’t really have one.”

She welcomes the exposure The King’s Speech has brought for people living with speech difficulties. “When I was young I thought I was the only one who had a stammer and I felt really alone, suddenly now it’s everywhere because of the film and I’m glad.”

Ecstasy runs from March 10 to April 9 at Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage. Details: 020 7722 9301