Wonderland Magazine

As the rising stars prepare for the final stretch of their West End debut in Samuel D. Hunter’s Clarkston, they sit down with Wonderland for tea – and a few cuddles.

Joe Locke and Ruaridh Mollica are making a cup of tea in the middle of an afternoon of rehearsals in the West End. For the past three months, the two rising stars have been living in each other’s pockets – with co-star Sophie Melville (The Way, Iphigenia in Splott), they have been bringing to the evenings of Trafalgar Theatre a new production of director Jack Serio and writer Samuel D. Hunter’s Clarkston. But rather than just a brilliant creative partnership that shines on stage night after night – and continues to reaffirm both actors’ places as some of the most exciting new voices in UK cinema and theatre – they’ve found, within the cast, a space for deep, meaningful bonds. And, as they’ll tell you, an almost ridiculous amount of love.

In Clarkston, Locke plays Jake, a young gay man journeying west to the Pacific in a bid to rediscover himself after being diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. Following the trail of his distant ancestor William Clark through the explorers’ journals, Jake’s travels stall when the illness begins to take hold. It’s in the small town of Clarkston, Washington – named after the very man whose footsteps he’s tracing – that he meets Mollica’s Chris, a local working night shifts at Costco. What unfolds is a story of identity-searching, familial struggles (Melville plays Chris’s mother, Trisha, in a brilliant portrayal of the cyclical hardships of overcoming addiction), and the quiet, transformative power of love. And that, it seems, carries offstage too.

Locke and Mollica’s friendship, though, feels almost fated. Both, when not lighting up the West End, can be found in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Heartstopper alumni graced the cast of Agatha All Along last year, and the Sebastian breakthrough will soon hit screens in upcoming WandaVision spin-off, Vision Quest. But there’s more to the lore than their shared knack for crossing over into the McU. It turns out that after sharing the stage night after night in the West End as Chris and Jake, the actors might be coming back to play twin brothers on the silver screen as Billy and Tommy Maximoff, better known to fans as Wiccan and Speed. Details on production are still very much tightly under wraps, but one thing is for sure: fans won’t be growing tired of this attachment any time soon.

To make sure we could get in on their mischief ourselves, Wonderland joined them backstage for tea just hours before that evening’s call time, to talk character prep days, making the theatre their new school, and the inevitable separation anxiety that looms when the final curtain falls on the play.

Joe Locke: Hi Wonderland!

Ruaridh Mollica: Hi Wonderland!

JL: We’re making cups of tea, but we’re going to ask each other a couple of questions for you while we do it.

RM: When did we first meet, and what were our first impressions of each other when rehearsals began?

JL: We went for lunch. And we had champagne.

RM: Yeah, and I came all the way to West London to see you.

JL: Big old trip. I was getting furniture delivered and didn’t want to leave my house. [Kettle brewing in the background]. Do you have a mug?

RM: Yeah, it’s okay. First impressions, I actually thought you were much sillier than I thought you were going to be.

JL: You know, people always think I’m really serious. There’s no more normal tea, what kind of tea do you want? We have ginger tea.

RM: Oh, no. I guess I’ll try that.

JL: I thought you were silly, funny, and unaware of how talented you are. I still think that, actually.

RM: That’s very sweet of you.

JL: How did you approach preparing your character in those first few days, Ruaridh?

RM: It was actually quite overwhelming because there was so much to learn, and we were just getting to know each other. So I kind of prepared a few ideas from reading the script in my own time, and I guess when we did our chemistry read, we talked a little about our characters and their dynamic. But it was really as we talked through the scenes that it came to life and grew, and we did a table read where we discussed the characters a lot with [Director] Jack Serio and Sam [D. Hunter], our writer. So those first days were really quite table read-y, finding our footing in the first scenes.

JL: I always feel like I’m underprepared on the first day because I get scared that if I do too much work beforehand, I’ll become stuck to that. But I do think the process was quite easy in that sense, it just happened. When you first read the script, what jumped out at you, either about your character or the story itself?

RM: I just thought the story was very beautiful and heartbreaking, and about a part of the world I hadn’t actually read about or knew too much of. And actually, I read the script just before I went to Idaho, so the timing was really nice. I felt like Chris was very layered and complex. All our characters seemed very complicated, and I really liked that.

JL: They’re very complicated. And it’s nice to have that – there’s a lot to play within that, I find. You can just have all these complex grey areas to explore. What do you love most about working with each other on stage?

RM: [Joe] really makes me happy.

JL: Me too. We’re currently cuddling. Wish you could see it, but you can’t.

RM: We’ll be in a scene together and make each other laugh, but we just know it’s happening between our eyes, because obviously we can’t laugh on stage.

JL: Yeah, I’ve got to know what your eyes mean.

RM: And that’s quite nice, isn’t it?

JL: We’ve run out of fancy water – do you mind?

RM: I don’t care about the fancy water, tap water’s good for me.

JL: Sophie [Melville] doesn’t like drinking tap water. I’m outing you, Soph.

RM: Outed!

JL: Is there a scene that feels particularly challenging or exhilarating to perform night after night?

RM: Scene ten! [Milk carton being shaken in the background]. Terrible timing, Joe. He’s pouring milk. But scene ten is really hard. It’s the climax of the whole play, and it’s just a very emotionally challenging scene. And I’m constantly thinking about it from the start of the play.

JL: I find scene one the hardest.

RM: Oh, really? Because it’s like getting into it?

JL: Yeah, I find it really hard to get into it some days.

RM: And I guess we also never know what the audience will be like, so that first scene is very much a tell of what kind of show it will be that night.

JL: Also, scene three – we have an almost sex scene. And if it’s a really quiet audience, it gets really awkward and then I start laughing.

RM: Yeah, and you feel really watched. Which, obviously, I know is the point.

JL: How do you think performing this play pushes you as an actor?

RM: God, I feel like I’ve learned so much more about acting than I have in my entire career on screen.

JL: Exactly. It pushes you in every way. Physically, emotionally…

RM: Because you’re so tired from it all the time, and you’re constantly putting yourself into these high-adrenaline situations or really big emotional moments – so much more than you would on a day-to-day basis.

JL: Yes, and we’re working for three hours a day, but they’re such intense hours that I get home every day and just collapse.

RM: Do you have any rituals before performing or stepping on stage, Joe?

JL: I brush my teeth.

RM: And you use your mouthwash…

JL: I do use my mouthwash. Then I stretch my tongue and have a wee. What about you?

RM: I’ve got a lucky tiny duck that I put in my right pocket. And then in my other tiny pocket I’ve got a Marilyn Monroe lighter that I keep in there, which for some reason I decided was lucky on the press night, the first show we did. So I always put them in my pockets. I also always touch the sign above the stage door before going in.

JL: The one that says “No smoking during auditions” from the 1930s?

RM: Yes! And I have a wee as well, because you can’t be needing to pee up there. That would be tricky.

JL: Have we discovered any secret talents or hobbies about each other during downtime?

RM: Joe can do the splits with his fingers.

JL: I can. I just did it. I have really flexible fingers. Thanks, Ruaridh.

RM: You’re welcome.

JL: Ruaridh plays chess really well. He’s like a little nerd.

RM: Do you think we’ll experience separation anxiety once this is over?

JL: I don’t think so. I think we’re going to see each other a lot. But it will be strange not seeing each other every day.

RM: It will be strange.

JL: But I’ll see you around.

RM: That will be nice.

JL: Thanks for joining us for tea, Wonderland.

RM: We hope you enjoyed it. Have a nice day.

Clarkston runs at Trafalgar Theatre until November 22.