“THE only thing I know about it is that I’ll have a beard,” quips David Morrissey, whose chin is already carpeted with a fine covering of hair.

He is of course referring to his latest theatrical role – one that will see him returning to the Everyman after 30 years as the Scottish king whose name actors scarcely dare to whisper.

We are sitting in the foyer – where Morrissey as a Youth Theatre member used to accost professional actors for advice – so it’s technically safe to say the word “Macbeth” out loud, but even so hearing the 46-year-old repeatedly say it out loud feels almost brazen.

Rehearsals have not yet begun so he has little to give away about his own interpretation of the role, but we do know (from director Gemma Bodinetz) that he will not be dressed in doublet and hose.

“It’s a really relevant play, much more relevant than when I decided to do it. The world’s events have taken it over,” says Morrissey, referring to the current crisis in Libya.

“I went back and read the play and I wanted a challenge and this certainly is it.

“I’m always suspicious of any job I walk into when I’m not completely bricking it. I’m not good at being comfortable.”

The Liverpool-born actor takes researching a part very seriously – this time avoiding past productions of Macbeth and concentrating instead on how the tragedy would have been received by a contemporary audience. He has also been reading up on men whose positions of influence have ultimately been their downfall.

“I’m trying to find where his psyche is – that corruption of power, that bloodlust, the idea of a man whose ambition takes over him,” says Morrissey, who is married to novelist Esther Freud, the great-granddaughter of Sigmund.

“It leads you to very prescient reading about what’s happening right now.”

The story arc also attracted him to the role – not the five act structure of Macbeth but his own personal story in relation to the Everyman’s current building, beginning with him joining the youth theatre as a teenager and returning three decades later to star in what may be the theatre’s last show before demolition and redevelopment later this year.

“Emotionally that was a great pull to me,” he says.

“I feel a great love and affinity to this building.”