Steven McIntosh
Entertainment reporter
BBC
Locke said he enjoyed playing characters who had “a bit of a bite, a bit of a grey area”
Heartstopper star Joe Locke is to make his West End debut this autumn, in a play about two young men who bond while working night shifts at a warehouse in a rural US town.
Locke is currently filming the forthcoming Heartstopper movie after appearing in three series of the hit Netflix show about two classmates who fall in love, but will take on his new stage role later this year.
The 21-year-old will star in Clarkston, which follows two men in their twenties from opposite ends of the US who meet while working at Costco.
Locke told BBC News he was “so excited” for his West End debut, adding that his new role matched his desire to play “flawed characters… who have a bit of bite”.
Clarkston is written by Samuel D Hunter, who is best known for his 2012 play The Whale, which later won Brendan Fraser an Oscar when made into a film.
Producers have not yet announced the venue or run dates for the British production, but told the BBC it would open in a West End theatre in the autumn.
Set in Clarkston, Washington, the play opens with a Costco employee named Chris working night shifts when he meets new hire Jake, a young gay man originally from Connecticut.
Jake has Huntington’s disease, a degenerative neurological condition that causes involuntary movements. He ended up in Clarkston by accident after finding himself no longer able to drive during a road trip west.
“He’s this city boy in a small place,” explained Locke. “Jake has got so many layers to him that really unravel in the play. A lot of the themes are to do with class and the different experiences of the characters.”
Chris, meanwhile, struggles with the strained relationship he has with his mother, who is a drug addict.
Locke, who is used to portraying young men grappling with their identity, explained: “I really enjoy characters that have something to them, a bit of bite, a bit of a grey area.
“Everyone is flawed in some ways. And I’ve been lucky enough in my career so far to play a few flawed characters, and Jake is no different to that. And that’s the fun bit, the meaty bit, getting to know these characters – they’re good and they’re bad.”
Hunter noted the play “is fundamentally about friendship and platonic male love, which is something that I feel like we don’t see a lot of on stage and screen”.
Locke agreed: “Yeah, one of my favourite things about this play is there’s a scene where these characters almost build on their platonic relationship and get to a romantic level, and they realise that no, the platonic relationship is what’s important, and I think that’s really beautiful.”
Getty Images
Samuel D Hunter (right) also wrote The Whale, the film adaptation of which won Brendan Fraser an Oscar
Clarkston, which has previously been performed alongside another of Hunter’s plays, Lewiston, received positive reviews from critics when it was staged in the US.
“You feel like you’re eavesdropping on intensely private moments of people you don’t always like but come to deeply understand,” said The Hollywood Reporter’s Frank Scheck of a 2018 production.
“Toward the end, there’s an encounter between Chris and his mother that is as shattering and gut-wrenching a scene as you’ll ever see on stage. But the play ends on a sweet, hopeful note that sends you out of the theatre smiling.”
Writing about a different production in 2024, Charles McNulty of the LA Times said: “Clarkston hints that some of our most instructive relationships may be the most transitory. That’s one of the beautiful discoveries in Hunter’s small, absorbing and ultimately uplifting play.”
Anybody who has worked night shifts may relate to the idea that the early hours are a time when people often open up to each other and have have their deepest conversations.
Hunter suggests such an atmosphere results in a “more delicate, more intimate” backdrop.
“I had an experience working in a Walmart when I was a teenager,” he recalled, “and I found that places like the break room were so intimate and vulnerable, you’re in this very sterilised space so I think the need for human connection is made all the greater.”
Netflix
Locke, pictured with Heartstopper co-star Kit Connor, said the forthcoming film will be “a really nice closing chapter”
Hunter had the idea of writing the play when visiting his home town of Moscow Idaho, about 30 miles from Clarkson, and became interested in “the idea that the American West is still kind of young”, following the Louisiana Purchase in the early 19th Century.
“The markers of that history are still there,” noted Hunter, “but they are right next to things like Costcos and gas stations and mini-malls.
“So it just got me interested in the experiment of the American West and the colonial past, and what that means in 2025.”
The new production will be directed by Jack Serio, who has previously directed another of Hunter’s plays, Grangeville, with Ruaridh Mollica and Sophie Melville cast in the other two lead roles as Chris and his mother.
Locke has previously appeared on stage at London’s Donmar Warehouse, and in a Broadway production of Sweeney Todd.
The actor said being a theatre actor “was the thing I wanted more than anything” when growing up.
“I’m from the Isle of Man,” he explained, “and my birthday present every year was a trip to London with my mum to watch a few shows, so it’s very full circle to bring my mum to my press night to my West End debut, it’s going to be very exciting.”
Locke has starred in three seasons of Neflix’s Heartstopper since its launch in 2022. The show followed two teenage boys, Charlie and Nick, who fall for each other at secondary school, and their circle of friends. Locke spoke to BBC News while on set, shooting the film adaptation.
“It’s going great, we’re almost two thirds of the way through shooting now, and everything, touch wood, is going well,” he said.
“We’re having a great time doing it, it’s a really nice closing chapter of the story.”