“It’s the fifth play I’ve rehearsed here,” says Tom Hiddleston, looking round a bare, bleak room at a studio space in Southeast London with a broad smile and a surprising amount of pleasure. Hayley Atwell peers past an office desk and a stack of plastic chairs to look out of the window.

“And have you worked over there?” she asks, pointing at the building opposite. “That’s where Cate Blanchett and Tom Burke are doing The Seagull? And next door here, Jonathan Bailey is working on Richard II. That to me is so indicative of the romance of the theatre community. Everyone is doing their thing, but all together in a shared space. I find it so exciting.”