Katurian is a writer of disturbing short stories that often include violence against children. When some real child murders start to resemble his stories, he is arrested and tossed into an interrogation cell — and as Katurian lives in a totalitarian state, the interrogation methods may be brutal.

It could also be the case that Katurian has nothing whatsoever to do with the murders, and the authorities are simply looking for an excuse to silence a writer whose work they do not like. Thus runs the storyline of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman.

It’s the sort of claustrophobic, small-scale play that is entirely and totally unsuitable for the cavernous, 1800-seat New Theatre, Oxford.

But that’s where it is going to be staged next week: for the first time ever, it’s hoped to create an intimate atmosphere at the New Theatre by putting the audience on the stage, with the actors.

Playing Katurian is local actor Richard Holt, who has had a busy and varied career since leaving drama school in 2007. Besides appearing in several plays, he’s been cast in two feature films, The Astronaut and Revelation, as well as appearing in Secret Cinema, which chooses atmospheric London venues to show films and stage-associated live shows.

Richard’s family live at Drayton, near Abingdon, and one of his earliest theatrical memories is of being taken south down the A34 to the Watermill Theatre, Newbury.

“It’s a charming place. I can’t remember what the show was, because I was quite little, but I do remember them all simulating riding horses — they were all running around on stage pretending to ride these horses, and I remember being completely captivated: I could completely buy into the whole army of horses that was meant to be there. Also I went to a lot of things at the Playhouse while I was at school.”

School wasAbingdon School followed by Bristol University.

“I studied biology at Bristol, nothing to do with acting at all. While I was at school, I had this problem where the school tries to tell you that you’re either good at arts, or you’re good at science, and you should specialise in one of these. I enjoyed both, so when I chose my A-levels I ended up doing biology, chemistry, physics — and drama. All the teachers were a bit confused, but they said, ‘OK, fine, you can do that’.

“When it came to choosing a degree, I found I was good at biology, and I enjoyed being good at it. But as I got further through my university career, I did more and more shows with the drama society, and in my final term I ended up doing big roles in two shows, and my finals exams. So all my time I was either rehearsing or revising! It was manic, but I really enjoyed it. But I also realised that I only wanted to do one of these two things for the rest of my life, and that was acting.”

Katurian in The Pillowman marks Richard’s professional debut in Oxford.

“It’s a fantastic part, but a strange one. It’s a dark comedy in a way, it’s not all grisly. I think Katurian is meant to be the person who acts as the eyes for the audience, so when they come in, they’re almost in a similar position to him.

“They know nothing, and he’s in a similar position in the interrogation room: he’s being bombarded with questions, and he’s quite flummoxed by them. By the interval, I think you understand where he’s coming from, and why he writes these stories.”

With the New Theatre audience being almost as close as Katurian’s interrogators, Richard is going to have quite a few people staring into his eyes. But having an audience within spitting distance is no problem, he explained.

“Having done quite a bit of fringe theatre in London, I’m used to stepping on the audience’s toes! That’s not going to be a new thing for me, I’m fond of that now. I think the audience is going to feel part of the action, that they are sitting there in the interrogation room.”

The Pillowman is at the New Theatre, Oxford, from November 25 to 27. Tickets on 0844 847 1585 or at newtheatreoxford.org.uk