Álvaro Morte on making his West End debut in 'Barcelona'

Spanish actor Álvaro Morte is relishing his 12-week stint in Barcelona, a play about a drunken one-night stand that turns increasingly darker.

Álvaro Morte ushers me into his dressing room as he would welcome a guest at a dinner party, pulling up a chair for me then sitting attentively opposite. The Spanish actor is all smiles as he tells me that this is the same dressing room Amy Adams used during her run of The Glass Menagerie at the Duke of York’s in 2022. “I was in this theatre years ago with my wife, watching Ian McKellen’s King Lear, so to be performing here is like a dream come true.”

Although no stranger to the capital, Morte is making his West End debut in Barcelona, Bess Wohl’s two-hander about a one-night stand that moves from flirty fun into more dangerous territory. The complexity of his character is part of what drew Morte to the project. “I’m kind of playing different things at the same time and it’s a gift for an actor to be in those blurry lines,” he says. And how is he finding his co-star, Lily Collins, famed for her titular role in the Netflix series Emily in Paris? “Oh, she’s awful. I hate her. Write that down please,” Morte says with a straight face before exploding into laughter. “No, she’s absolutely lovely – she’s an amazing actress and an extremely good mate.”

Presumably, it’s even more important to get on with your co-star when there are no other supporting cast to deflect any tensions? “If you’re going to be 12 weeks in a play with just one other person and you don’t have a good relationship with your partner, it can become a nightmare!” Morte confirms. And is he talking from personal experience? “Oh yes!” he laughs.

Having founded his own theatre company, 300 pistolas, in 2012, Morte has extensive experience of acting, directing and producing for the stage, but lately he’s found himself more in front of a camera than treading the boards (most recently in the gothic horror movie Immaculate). “There was something about theatre that I’ve been missing,” he reflects. “In theatre, the audience are part of the show and they give you the rhythm – they tell you where to pause and where to expect a laugh.” But surely learning a new play in a foreign language is terrifying, I suggest. “It’s a challenge and I love challenges!” he smiles. “We didn’t have much time – we had one week’s table work then built the play up in two and a half weeks, so it’s been really crazy. But it’s so nice when you feel connected to your partner and you’re both connected to the audience. I believe that when you’re having fun and enjoying what you do, that vibe travels to the audience and they feel it too.”

The Duke of York’s Theatre website displays trigger warnings for Barcelona, highlighting references to issues including terrorism, suicide and controlling relationships. Some actors, including Ralph Fiennes and Matt Smith, have recently argued that such warnings sanitise plays and effectively give spoilers to the audience, so how does Morte feel about the issue? “I would love to say nothing about the play at all and for people to be surprised as they make these discoveries one by one,” he says. “But I do understand why for some people warnings are necessary. The important thing about art for me is that it moves you in some way. It’s lovely after a show to go and have a glass of wine with your friend or partner and discuss the messages in the play.”

Although he racked up a sizeable number of TV credits in his early career, Morte admits he was just a jobbing actor in Spain before getting his big break playing the Professor in Money Heist – the 2017 Netflix series that became a worldwide phenomenon. The series ran for five seasons and catapulted its cast into the international spotlight, earning Morte a slew of awards. So, could he tell it was a diamond in the dust just from reading that first script? “I remember on the second day of shooting calling my wife and saying, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen, but this is really different – this is something we haven’t seen yet, at least in Spain.’”

The show’s success led to offers from directors and actors that Morte admits he’d only previously dreamt of working with. “Some of those doors were suddenly opened to me, which is something I will never stop being grateful for.” And has the door finally closed on the Money Heist vault, or could there be further adventures down the line? “We finished the series, but you never know. Personally, I’d love to maybe do something like ‘The Return’ in the future – I would do that for sure because I really enjoyed playing the Professor, he’s a character who gave me many many beautiful things.”

I ask Morte if there are any dream plays still on his wish-list and his reply is immediate. “This is stupid to say, but I love Shakespeare – who doesn’t? I’d love to perform a Spanish version of Iago in Othello because that’s the first Shakespeare play I read, and Iago is such a great character. Why not make a Spanish version?”

Finally, if he had to sum up Barcelona in three words, which would he choose? “That’s a hard one, because we’re still discovering things about the play every night,” Morte says. “But I’d say it was thrilling, surprising and – going by the audience reaction – enjoyable!”

As we wind up the interview, Morte insists on guiding me through the labyrinthine corridors of the theatre and safely out on to the street. I almost expect him to hail me a cab while he’s at it. Not only is Álvaro Morte a talented actor, he’s also an exceedingly good host.

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Photo credit: Álvaro Morte. (Photo courtesy of production)