Warwick Davis appearing in See How They Run in Westcliff

Warwick Davis, all 3ft 6in of him, leads the cast of the venerable farce See How They Run, that famous romp based on vicars and bishops getting themselves into ever more embarrassing scrapes.

First staged in 1944, See How They Run is one of the most widely performed British plays of the 20th century. It has been staged thousands of times across the English-speaking world – but never before quite like this.

What makes the Cliffs Pavilion production different is that every member of the sevenstrong cast can look Warwick in the eye. Like him, they are all actors with dwarfism.

As executive producer Kevin Wood puts it: “Nobody else could have set up a project like this. But Warwick Davis is now one of the most famous people in the country, so if he wants something to happen, it can happen.”

What happened on this occasion is that Warwick formed his own production company, the Reduced Height Theatre Company.

See How They Run is its inaugural show.

Warwick says: “It’s a chance to give some very fine actors the sort of opportunity they don’t normally get. I’ve been lucky in my career, but there are other short actors who have not had the sort of breaks I’ve enjoyed.”

He adds: “I’ve felt forawhile I wanted to work with some of these very fine actors, on stage.

We formed the stage company to make all this possible.”

Warwick was determined, from the outset, to avoid staging See HowTheyRun as a novelty item.

Warwick says: “This is not about performing dwarfs. We are just professional actors using our skills like anyone else who has ever appeared in See How They Run. The humour emerges from the play itself.We have not inserted any gags based on the characters’ height.

It will only take a few minutes for the audience to forget the actors are all short people.”

As an interviewee, Warwick, 44, is genial and open. He has no politically correct concerns about heightism. “I don’t take offence at the term dwarf, but we use the termshort actor,” he says.

Away from work, he lives what he describes as a “pretty normal life” with his wife, Rebecca, who has achondroplasia, and two children. The family home is near Peterborough, not the sort of place normally associated with big-time stars.

“It’s close to my wife’s family and easy for getting into London,” Warwick says. “And it’s well placed for getting to and from Southend every day.”

Yet wherever he may choose to live, Warwick pays the inevitable price of being one of the country’smost recognisable figures.

“It is getting more difficult to do ordinary things like go to the supermarket,” he says.

“But I always do stop to talk to people. I really do value the support the public has always given me.”

Warwick’s biggest bugbear concerns people who touch him “for luck”. He also finds ATMmachines a source of frustration. “My wife and I can’t reach them properly,” he says.

Yet he dismisses concerns like these as minor issues.

“Basically I’ve just been so lucky,” he says. “If my grandmother hadn’t been listening to the radio at a particular moment, I wouldn’t now be an actor.”

Warwick was 11 when his grandmother heard that lifechanging radio announcement, asking for people of restricted stature to audition for the third Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi. After playing an Ewok, he was spotted by director Ron Howard, and given the lead part in the fantasy epic Willow.

Since then, he has seldom been short of work.

In recent years, he has gravitated towards comedy. Ricky Gervais has described Warwick as “one of the funniest people I know – pound for pound”. The idea for the sitcom Life’s Too Short, written by Gervais and Stephen Merchant, came from Warwick himself. It presents a fictionalised account of life at Willow, the agency for short actors Warwick runs with his father-in-law.

Warwick plays himself as “a conniving, backbiting little Napoleon”.

Warwick’s character in See How They Run, the Rev Lionel Toop, is much nicer, if more naive. Toop is a rural vicar,married to a wife, Penelope, with a past. Comic chaos descends on the rectory when a Russian spy on the run, and an old flame of Penelope’s, arrive simultaneously. See How They Run represents a new challenge for Warwick.

He says: “Farce is quite different in the demands it makes. It’s about pace, timing, precision. There are a lot of less challenging plays we could have chosen for our debut.”

Being Britain’s most famous short actor is not quite enough for Warwick. While he cannot stretch himself physically, he can stretch himself as a performer. He hopes See How They Run will prove that point.

He says: “Being short is still my USP (ultimate selling point). But I hope it’s become a bit more than that. It would be lovely if people got to know me as an actor who just happened to be short.”

See How They Run, Cliffs Pavilion, Station Road, Westcliff Monday, February 24, to Saturday, March 1. 8pm, mats Thurs and Sat at 2.30pm. Tickets, priced £16.50-£24.50, from southendtheatres.org.uk or call 01702 351135.