'You get intimate so fast it's why they call us luvvies'

Ewan McGregor is telling us about his napkin trick: a foolproof way to block out annoying theatregoers in an instant.

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"I was watching a friend of mine on stage in New York and the lady next to me would not stop twirling her hair. I couldn’t fucking concentrate! In the interval, I got two napkins, put holes in them, and fed them through the arms of my glasses so I had napkins on either side of my face.” McGregor, 54, places one hand on either side of his face to demonstrate, like a grinning horse with blinkers on. “The second half was perfect – couldn’t see her at all. They really should sell them at theatres.”

At this, his co-stars are in fits. Elizabeth Debicki, who played Princess Diana in the final two series of The Crown, and the Olivier-nominated Kate Fleetwood are no doubt imagining, as I am, the Trainspotting star at a Broadway show with tissues stuck to his face. “That woman must’ve thought you were hiding,” laughs Debicki. “Ewan McGregor thinks he’s so famous that he has to do the napkin trick.” Fleetwood hoots with laughter.

Such good-natured ribbing and easy warmth belie the fact that this trio met for the first time only six weeks ago in the rehearsal room for their new play, My Master Builder. “Now we’re all over each other all the time,” says the 52-year-old Fleetwood, pawing playfully at her castmates. “You get intimate so fast because you have to be vulnerable around each other, always failing in front of each other. It’s probably why people call us luvvies because it happens so quickly.”

It’s the fourth week of rehearsals, with only two more to go, and nerves are high. One after the other, Fleetwood, Debicki and McGregor had bundled into the dressing room backstage in various states of exhaustion, all dressed in the actor’s de facto uniform: nondescript trousers paired with a nondescript shirt, and in the case of McGregor, a nondescript cardigan and thickrimmed spectacles.