Lauren Lyle and Alexander Arnold have been performing Most Favoured, David Ireland’s (Cyprus Avenue, The Fifth Step, Ulster American) latest play, for almost a month at the Soho Theatre. Directed by Max Elton (Not Now, Yes, So I Said Yes), Most Favoured is an unusually short play at around 45 minutes long, but, as Lyle says, “it packs a lot in.” It follows Mary, a woman who has been sleeping with strangers for eight months, and Mike, an American who has never heard of KFC. After a one-night stand, and what Mary says is the best sex of her life, she confesses a secret to Mike, and he confesses his own.
The play came after a very busy period for both actors. Lauren Lyle, who we last caught up with in October, hasn’t stopped working for two years, with TV projects like The Ridge and Karen Pirie still close in the rear-view mirror. Meanwhile, Alexander Arnold has worked on at least ten projects, a combination of shorts and features, since 2024. As if that weren’t enough, they’ve both also just directed their first short films. So it’s no wonder this play has felt like a kind of respite for both, whether through reconnecting with a love of performance in theatre, or simply allowing themselves to have a laugh.
Because the play is a laugh. Combining realism with absurdity, and a few twists that are best left unspoiled, both actors have clearly brought a lot of soul to an already tight script. And as soon as I sit down to speak to them on the seats of the very theatre they’ll be performing in just a couple of hours later, I can see why. They don’t take themselves too seriously, and self-consciousness doesn’t come naturally to either of them. Their focus is purely on their characters, on what makes them feel real to an audience, and how they can respond to each other while performing. They leave you with the kind of energy that makes you skip down the street after talking to them, which is exactly what makes them shine on stage.
Welcome back to 1883 Lauren, and welcome Alex!
Lauren: Yeah, well, you were born in 1883, so…
Alexander: That’s right, yeah. Here I am, 100 and whatever it is… more than that. Oh, God, I don’t know.
Lauren: God knows. No, more than that. I don’t know. I’m not strong at maths. This is how we start an interview!
Let’s actually start with the play. Most Favoured. What drew you to the script, without spoiling it?
Alexander: Well, I read it not knowing anything about David Ireland. I’d heard of The Fifth Step, his previous play, but I hadn’t read any of his work before. It’s quite a quick play, and I just thought it was brilliant, all the twists, and the dialogue was so on point. I also think that it being at the Soho Theatre, it’s such a wicked venue. Then when I went in to audition for the role, I found out I was going to be reading with Lauren, who I’d known but never worked with. I was really excited to audition with her, and we hit it off, so that drew me in as well.
Lauren: I did know who David Ireland was, I’d seen The Fifth Step, and I’m friends with Jack Lowden, who was in it. People had talked about David being the best playwright of our time, that there’s no one better right now. So when I read the script, the writing is so brilliant, as Alex says, and it’s so weird but also extremely believable. It’s almost like it forces you to believe the unbelievable. I’m really into absurd stuff, so that really excited me.
So I texted Jack and said, “I’ve been offered a play by David Ireland. It’s short, though, what do you think?” And he was like, “Don’t even think about it. Do it.”
And then during auditions, loads of guys came through. Then Alex came in, and you were so alive. I kept thinking, with your American accent, you reminded me of Sam Rockwell in Charlie’s Angels, an absolute weirdo, but a bit sexy. Everything I did, you responded to instinctively. When you left the room, I was like… it has to be him. I didn’t make the decision, but I gave my two cents.
Alexander: That’s really sweet. When you said Sam Rockwell, I remember asking, like… “White Lotus?”
Lauren: Yeah, Charlie’s Angels Sam Rockwell.
Alexander: But yeah, I loved the audition. It’s always great when you get to read with another actor. It’s such an opportunity to actually act.
Better than self tapes?
Alexander: Yeah! You’re taking the other person in, getting their vibe.
Lauren: That’s so important in theatre, because it’s relentless, you’re doing it every night for so long, and you have to enjoy who you’re working with. It can go really badly if you don’t.
I want to get into that because this is very much a two-hander. You are just riffing off each other for 45 to 50 minutes, how did you work on that chemistry?
Lauren: What did we do? I mean, we just naturally got on.
Alexander: I think we have a shared sense of humour, and that’s huge. You’ve got things there on a foundational level. But we also did a lot in rehearsals that built trust.
Lauren: Yeah, Max would get us to do fun, weird exercises, and you were unafraid to just go for it, which made me unafraid. So I think we both decided to trust each other.
Alexander: Remember when you were piggybacking on me?
Lauren: Oh, that’s right, I just jumped on your back.
Alexander: Yeah, bold choice.
Lauren: Max also had us do full runs without dialogue. We’d record the script, play it through a speaker, and physically act out the entire play. It gave us such a clear sense of what we wanted from each other without focusing on lines. Or we’d have to hold a specific thought for an entire run, for example, and this isn’t a spoiler because it’s not the case, but one of mine was imagining he was underage the whole time, and what that would do to the performance.
Debatable whether this is what’s happening in Most Favoured, but what would be your ideal date?
Lauren: Okay, I’m picked up in a helicopter, and I’m taken to a mountaintop where there is a bottle of champagne and a hot chocolate waiting. We go snowboarding, just for a bit. It’s fun. We’re having a giggle. Then we get the helicopter back to a beach, and then we go swimming in the sunny beach, and it’s really lovely. We just hang out, have cocktails, and they get back in the helicopter and go to a really comfy bed, watch movies, and then probably, you know, if it’s gone well, some intimate coordination.
Alexander: Wow, intimate coordination.
Lauren: But also, they have to be funny, you can do all of that but if they’re boring, I’m not interested. You have to acknowledge this is fucking absurd, what we’re doing, but we’re going to do it anyway.
You’ve made it so easy.
Lauren: That’s my standards. Alex?
Alexander: I’ve said this before. But it’s April 25th, because it’s not too hot, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket.
Lauren: Well done, well done.
Did you just look up that quote on your phone?
Alexander: Yeah. Or go to the cinema and have a couple of drinks afterwards.
Lauren: You’re a low key guy.
You can tell which one of you has been in a relationship for a long time.
Lauren: (Laughs) Can you tell I’m single?
Lauren, your performance is so outwardly funny, how do you maintain that for 45 minutes? Did you look to any performances for inspiration?
Lauren: I think Jennifer Coolidge in The White Lotus. She’s absurd, but still completely real, you believe that that is just who she is. I think often things are too toned down. I’ve done a lot of TV and film recently where everything has to be smaller, more reserved. So I started pushing it and Max didn’t stop me.
We talked about how everything is bubbling under the surface, constantly cracking. I’m a Cancer, so I wrote down, “this experience has cracked the crab,” because she just keeps freaking out. But it’s still real. Paired with what Alex is doing, it stays within the real world.
And Alex, you have to make people believe that your character is the way he is. Someone who doesn’t know what KFC is or… anything really. How did you do that?
Alexander: I think at the heart of the character, Mike is just someone who is very in the moment, almost like a child. And I’m trying to approach it as someone who’s wide-eyed. At the beginning of the play I come in and mess around with a few things in the room because he’s in a different country, he’s in a different place. So anything like KFC, or anything like that is completely new to him, and you’ll find out why…
Lauren: We decided that it has to be played so realistically. And with Mary, what she’s dealing with and what she’s going through, without spoiling it, is something I’ve watched a lot of my female friends deal with. I think we just really focused on the reality of it all.
The setting helps, watching you both go through this in a Travelodge. Which brings me to… worst hotel story?
Alexander: I don’t know if it’s like the worst experience, but something that’s sort of amazing happened when I was staying somewhere in South Africa doing a film. So we’re in these little houses, like a hut, and there’s two rooms in each. And we heard these guys just saying, “There’s baboons outside. Please don’t leave here. We’re gonna look into it and sort it out. But it was kind of amazing just looking outside!
Lauren: Wait, I can piggyback on this and do a better story.
Alexander: How fucking dare you? (laughs)
Lauren: No, no, this is crazy. I thought we were about to have the same story. I was in Bali and they said to not leave your doors open because there’s loads of monkeys. We’re jet lagged so we fall asleep and I wake up to an enormous monkey in the room. And I just go, “Monkey, monkey, monkey!” Monkey sees me, gets all excited that I’m freaking out, grabs my camera and runs outside onto the roof.
Boyfriend jumps up, runs downstairs and tells the reception, who are coming up running with bananas. I, at this point, had climbed onto the roof to try and run at the monkey, the neighbouring hotel room had jumped out, and they threw a ball at the monkey, and the monkey then threw the camera to the ground, it smashes, he grabs the ball and then runs off. Basically, they’re so smart that they know if you are upset that they’ve taken something of yours, so you have to give them something in return for your stuff back.
Alexander: I really like monkeys, though. I really love monkeys. I always get monkeys popping up on my reels. I love it.
Is your algorithm just monkeys?
Alexander: It’s like… monkeys and chihuahuas, because I’ve got a chihuahua.
What’s your algorithm Lauren?
Lauren: So that’s actually a bonding experience. Alex and I will sit in opposite dressing rooms and send each other memes and we can hear the other pissing with laughter. My algorithm is crazy. My algorithm is the darkest, weirdest, dumbest stuff of people being absolute freaks. Everyone actually always comes back and says, “What the hell is your algorithm?”
Alexander: I mean, whose algorithm is okay? Do you know what I mean?
Alex, you’ve just directed your first short, 11+, what has changed for you since directing? Do you look at performing differently?
Alexander: I think it’s helped me understand how to direct actors, but I compartmentalise. Acting is my first thing. Directing and writing are my second things. Acting is about not being self-conscious, just responding, so I don’t know if I’d be any good at directing something that I’m in. But I’m writing stuff, I was writing today, actually, I’m trying to make it a practice. I’ve got to have 15-20 minutes a day, that’s my 2026 thing. Lauren, you’ve just directed a short, what do you think?
Lauren: Thank you, Alex. Yeah, yes, I have, we’re in post. I had it graded by Joseph [Bicknell], who did How to Have Sex and All of Us Strangers, so it looks really nice. But I was the same, I was in it for a minute, because the lead is Ruaridh Mollica, who is Scottish, and there was a sister, and the crew thought I should do that. I hated watching myself. I hated being in it. I just wanted to direct. And by the end of it, I thought, I never want to act again. I just want to be a director.
What’s the short about?
Lauren: It’s called Run Club. It’s about a guy who’s going through a big moment of grief and the absurd stuff that you might do in grief to deal with it, but it’s really funny.
Lauren, I also wanted to ask you about being a gymnast, because you mentioned that in your last chat to us. Do you think having learned how to control your body since you were young has helped with performing?
Lauren: That’s a really interesting way of thinking about it. Because actually, yeah, probably! I’ve never thought about it like that. Gymnastics was the first time I ever properly performed, because I competed and we would do routines and I danced.
I mean, I do handstands before a show most nights, and I was doing them in rehearsals. I’m really aware of my body. I really love using my body. I feel like a physicality for this character has developed, especially when I get changed halfway through the show into a different outfit. She’s in, like a little skirt, and my legs are out, and my bum’s almost out, and I have to use my hips and my nails, and it’s fun. But yeah, I guess so!
Speaking of clothes, Alex, you’re in your underwear pretty much the whole time. Is it liberating or does it make you self conscious?
Alexander: I did another play about 10 years ago called Shopping and Fucking, similar sort of vibe of not worrying too much, so I guess I’m used to it. I’ve done that before, and I knew what this would entail. But is it liberating? I guess so. I think the character is liberating. He’s just so moment to moment. Like a one track mind.
That’s a great description of Mike. What do you think is the biggest challenge of doing a comedy on stage?
Alexander: I think not getting into a pattern of waiting for laughs, you know? Just playing the truth.
Lauren: Exactly, not playing for laughs.
Alexander: It’s very easy to do, though, to play into that. Because you think, “oh, here we go, for the last seven nights has got this laugh,” but you really have to just tune into the other person.
Lauren: And then if you don’t get a laugh or something, you’re like, “oh, okay, that’s not how this audience is going to take that.” It’s been a lesson, the audience is the third character in this. It’s so hard to not react. I think my biggest fear was that I’d collapse on stage because of Alex making me laugh. And there have been heaps of times recently where you’ve done something a bit random and it’s almost broken me on stage.
Alexander: And if you see the play, it is absurd. So I think you can’t really do anything wrong in your character. I feel like it’s all human behaviour, and we all do weird, illogical things. I always feel like, arrogantly, you can’t really do anything wrong on stage, because it’s all you. If you’re reacting and listening to the person, then your behaviour just comes off of them, rather than something that you’re manipulating out of yourself.
Lauren: And the audience doesn’t know. At the start a few things would go a bit wrong, and I was gutted. And then Alex would be like, “Well, fuck it, they don’t know”. There is something very liberating about if something goes wrong, if you just do it confidently, we can just play it off.
And you trust the other person to catch you.
Lauren: Yeah, 100%.
So, kicking off 2026 – what are you recommending, what should people keep an eye out for in culture?
Lauren: Oh, can I give you my own one? I have a podcast called She’s a Rec. I have very cool people come on and interview them about albums, films and books by women, or people who aren’t men, that have most influenced their life. In the first two seasons I had people like Ellie Rowsell from Wolf Alice and Olivia Cooke. I have really funny people coming on this season, some Outlander cast and some others!
What else is coming out? Are we watching Heated Rivalry?
Alexander: I watched a couple of episodes last night.
Lauren: Also su i think, who is an amazing musician, has got a project coming out this year and her music’s really cool. It’s like, quite dancy, really fun. And she’s the funniest person on the internet, so everyone should look out for her music.
Alexander: 28 Years Later, the new one is coming out. I thought the last one was just wicked.
Amazing, and what is next for you both? Where should we follow you to?
Alexander: I have a film coming out with Aaron Taylor Johnson called Fuze, directed by David Mackenzie. It’s about an unexploded WWII bomb found in central London. I’ve got a few shorts with some really cool filmmakers. One with Edie Deffebach, she’s really good, the film’s called What Goes Round, which is an interpretation about the story of Medusa but it’s set on a night bus. I also did another short with a great filmmaker called Vittoria Rizzardi Peñalosa, she’s done a great film called Woman Dying, and we shot it on 16mm, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how that looks. It’s a film set in a drawing class and the nude model is found dead, and everyone is trying to figure out who did it. And then another short with Louisa Connolly-Burnham called The Intimacy Coordinator. Louisa is incredible, I don’t know how she does it – she’s written this thing, and she’s acting in it, and she’s also directing it. But it’ll be cool!
Lauren: I’ll be focusing on the podcast a lot. I have a great producer and guests lined up. I’ll finish my short and hopefully release it. I’m thinking of doing another short, or maybe it’ll just be a feature. I just really want to direct something else. Acting wise, there’s shows that are looking good for another season but we’re not sure yet. I’ve not stopped working for a couple of years, so I’m excited to rest.
Last time you said you wanted to have a laugh after so many dramas, achieved?
Lauren: Honestly, all we’ve done is laugh, and my biggest fear has been that I’m going to laugh on stage. So yeah, that’s exactly what this has been. I feel like I’ve manifested that. So I can keep doing that with you. I want a helicopter and a couple of really big movies. And just loads of love and life and friends.
What are you manifesting Alex?
Alexander: Acting wise, I’d want to just do more theatre. I’d want to just do plays, to be honest. Because I feel free doing this play. I’ve always loved theatre, and in terms of acting like there’s nothing better than doing it on stage. I’d love to just act on stage and then write my own things.
Lauren: I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’ve watched Marty Supreme and I’ve got Marty Supreme energy about this next year. I’ve watched Timothee Chalamet be like “I want to be one of the greats,” and I don’t think I can say that because as a woman you’d be completely torn down, but I do think there’s something about getting excited about your life and what’s ahead. And talking openly about being an artist, not be afraid to call myself an artist. And I think if you deny yourself that label, or being allowed to talk about yourself like that, you hinder yourself from being able to really immerse yourself in it. So lean into that and learn about it and let that become a part of you.
Alexander: You shouldn’t be afraid to say that you’re an artist. I think, also, I try and balance that with not feeling like I have to optimise every fucking part of my life, get out of that capitalist mindset.
Lauren: In my 30s, I’ve realised that sleep changes the game. That’s what I need. And having coffee with my friends, cuddling my cat…
And a helicopter.
Lauren: Yeah, and the occasional helicopter ride.
Most Favoured is on at the Soho Theatre until January 24, 2026, for tickets visit www.sohotheatre.com.
Follow both actors on @alex___arnold and @laurenlyle7.
Interview Natalia Albin
