What would you do if you had a few days left to live? That is the scenario behind A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky, showing at the Lyric from next Friday. ROBERT CUMBER caught up with Harry McEntire, the show's youngest star
WE DON'T know whether it's a meteor, aliens or an Icelandic volcano wot dunnit, but either way it's curtains for the earth and everyone on it in apocalyptic drama A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky.
Harry McEntire - one of the youngest cast members, but already a veteran of the Lyric, where this is his third appearance - is keeping schtum when it comes to the finer details of the plot.
But the 19-year-old, who only finished his A-levels last year, is happy to ponder how he would react should the sky come crashing down.
"I don't think I'd be as proactive as a lot of the characters in the show," says the teenager.
"You either pull out that list of all the things you wanted to do before you died and start ticking them off or you panic and pretend it's not happening. I've got a horrible feeling I'd do the latter."
Incredibly, it is just two years since Harry first visited the Lyric to watch The Irresistible Rise of Arturo Ui, which he was studying for his A-levels.
He was back within a year, this time on stage, in Spring Awakenings, and again last autumn in Punk Rock.
His latest play - co-written by David Eldridge, Robert Holman and Simon Stephens, and directed by Sean
Holmes - sees an extended family reunited on their farm in north east England, where they plan to see out their last few days together.
With nothing to lose, they finally confront their darkest and most personal issues, bringing deeply buried family secrets bubbling to the surface.
Harry plays Philip Benton, the youngest of five brothers, who discovers more and more about his family background as the revelations keep coming.
"All these characters carry a lot of baggage; it's not like people meeting up for Christmas and asking how the family's doing," says Harry, who grew up with two older sisters in Woking.
"If you know the world's going to end in three weeks, what's the point in holding back? It's a terrifying prospect, but it gives you incredible freedom.
"What's great about the play is how it addresses these huge apocalyptic ideas at the same time as giving such weight to the minutiae of human relationships and how we're all trying to live but at the same time being afraid to really do so.
"I can't imagine not wanting to be with my family at the end of the world. Family's the ultimate safety net and retreat."
