IT’S not just the audience who can be left transfixed by the work of a great playwright - actors are equally susceptible to some well chosen words.

Patrick Robinson, who plays Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof which opens at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre this week, admits that the allure of performing a Tennessee Williams’ classic was too good an opportunity to miss.

“It was the piece of work that enticed me,” admitted Patrick who will be making his Royal Exchange debut. “Let’s be honest most actors want to do good stuff and you realise when you learn the lines how beautiful and just how well put together everything is.”

Big Daddy is a domineering presence in the play. A successful self-made man presiding over a dysfunctional family, he doesn’t suffer fools, speaking his mind and not considering the consequences and represents a great challenge for an actor.

“I think it’s important to make sure that he is nuanced and not just a shouty dad,” said Patrick. “He could just be bellowing constantly but there is far more to him than that.

“I actually recognised a few traits from my own father - not that he is like my dad - but certain things which I have brought into my understanding of who he is. He’s also quite Shakespearian in a way and there are elements of Succession too.”

Patrick said he was a big fan of the hit TV show in which Brian Cox plays a belligerent telecomms billionaire constantly at war with his family.

“Hopefully we have all got families,” he said, “and they can be toxic or they can be beautiful but there is also everything that lies in between these two extremes which we can all relate to.”

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, although written 70 years ago, remains relevant today and Patrick hopes that is something that audiences will certainly take away from the Royal Exchange production.

“I like the ideas that our director Roy Alexander Weise has for this production,” said Patrick. “It is set now and I think it has a real theatrical feel to it which I hope will appeal to younger audiences who might not know who Tennessee Williams is.

“I hope they will think ‘wow, who is this writer?’ rather than just thinking it’s an old writer who isn’t relevant. Good writers’ work lasts through the ages - just look at Shakespeare, we’re still performing his plays centuries later because they reflect the human condition. It’s the same with Tennessee Williams.”

Never having worked at the Royal Exchange before, Patrick fell in love with the theatre the moment he walked in.

“I love architecture,” he said, “so you have this wonderful building and then suddenly you have this space ship which has materialised inside it like something out of Star Trek - it’s amazing.”

The intimate surroundings of the Royal Exchange are perfectly suited for the tension surrounding Big Daddy and his family.

“You just have to remember that the fourth wall stretches all around the space,” said Patrick, “and that the back of your head can be interesting. I have done quite a few productions in my time and I still think my favourite venue is the Swan at Stratford where I did my first stage job back in 1986 which is very similar to the Royal Exchange in the way that the audience surrounds you.”

Patrick went from drama school to the Royal Shakespeare Company where he spent four seasons before he got his big break, being cast as Ash, nurse Martin Ashford, in the BBC drama Casualty.

He would spend the next six years in the drama and returned to the show in 2012 - now as consultant Martin Ashford - for a further wo years.

He has also worked several times with the Royal Shakespeare Company and appeared in the West End and on national tours of shows including The Shawshank Redemption, The Seagull and Murder on the Orient Express. On TV he has appeared in Shetland, Death in Paradise and Sitting in Limbo, a drama about the Windrush scandal.

He also appeared in Strictly Come Dancing in 2013 reaching the semi-final.

But it is Casualty which is will probably always be best remembered for.

“It has a big place in my heart,” he said. “It was my first TV ‘gig’ and to get into a hit BBC drama in 1990 when there were still only four channels at that time was a big deal.

“I loved my time doing Casualty in the 90s. When I started Brenda Fricker had returned to the series after winning an Oscar for My Left foot which meant there was even greater attention on the show.

“It was great to be there for the beginning of my TV career. I did return later in 2012 but it wasn’t the same.”

Having been successful in both theatre and TV - Patrick has also written and directed work - which does he prefer?

“I’d have to say I prefer the theatre,” he said. “There’s more immediacy to it, you have the audience there with you and you experience the evening together. There can be a lot of waiting around doing TV work.”

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Royal Exchange, Manchester, until Saturday, April 29. Details from www.royalexchange.co.uk