AN ASPIRING actor whose patience finally paid off has described taking his moment on stage in the West End.

Elliot Coombe’s passion has always been for drama and musical performance, and as a youngster in Callington he was always part of school choirs and productions, as well as being a member of the PlymKids stage group.

On leaving drama school, Elliot, now 26, took the well-trodden path to the capital in the quest to find work.

He tells of the hard slog of combining day jobs with attending castings and auditions, always optimistic that the next call would be the one leading to an important breakthrough.

“My dream was always to move to London and become a professional, appearing in the West End,” he said.

Holding onto that dream has been hard at times. A job going on tour as a Teletubby was at least a performing role, but one Elliot says he prefers not to dwell on, and like many in his industry, he’s experienced his share of rejections and near misses.

But when he had to cover for his flatmate in a front-of- house job at one of London’s oldest theatres, it was to set in motion a train of important events.

St Martin’s Theatre is home to The Mousetrap – first staged in 1952, it’s the world’s longest running production now clocking in at more than 28,200 shows.

Taking up his job selling tickets and programmes in 2017, Elliot was asked to cover backstage work a couple of years later.

“They’re very old fashioned,” he explains, “a lot of the sound effects are made themselves, so I’d be doing door slams, and knocks on doors.

“I then went on to do the lighting, I covered stage door, and then I got asked to be the runner for auditions for the cast.

“Apart from working behind the bar I have pretty much done every job at the theatre!”

The Mousetrap operates with two casts, who do a week on and a week off.

While Elliot would be the first person to greet those hoping for a part, putting them at ease while they waited for their audition, he himself was fantasizing of playing one of the central characters, Christopher Wren.

“Ever since I first watched the play it became a dream role for me – I just felt I had to play it,” said Elliot. “I’ve always been so ready and so eager.”

The chance to try for an understudy place came up – and on the day of his audition, Elliot was doing the lighting in the morning, and the sounds in the afternoon, reading through a couple of the scenes when he could get the chance.

“When I got the part I couldn’t believe it – the new cast were supposed to start in two weeks, but then the pandemic shut all the theatres down,” he said.

“I had this great news but I couldn’t tell anyone about it because it hadn’t been announced yet.”

Frustration followed, as a second national lockdown meant that the show looked like going ahead in October, only to be cancelled.

“We were the first show to open up in the West End on May 17 of this year, with social distancing.”

Elliot was on tenterhooks throughout May and June, and then came the call to say he was needed just half an hour later – the actor playing Christopher Wren could not make it.

“My train was pulling into Euston Station. I called my parents, although I knew they wouldn’t be able to get there as they were in Cornwall. I ran as fast as I could to the tube station and then ran to the theatre in Leicester Square.”

A moment of panic came when Elliot, thinking ruefully of how much he’d eaten during lockdown, realized that he had not tried on the costume since February 2020, but as it buttoned up, all was well.

“There’s nothing quite like just being literally thrown on stage when an hour before you had no idea,” he says.

“As understudies, we never get to rehearse the play with the main cast, we only rehearse with each other.

“I managed a quick run through of some of it with the cast, whispering, because the audience had already started to arrive.”

Elliot describes that precious brief time on stage as “amazing”. He was especially pleased that his girlfriend Rowan, whom he met at Callington Community College, was able to come to watch the evening performance.

“We’ve been together 11 years. She’s also trained as an actor and she’s now working as an assistant stage manager.”

Throughout his years working the various jobs at St Martin’s Theatre, Elliot has auditioned “for anything and everything” and continues to look for his next role; he’ll be with the Mousetrap cast as an understudy until November.

“I’ve worked for a mascot company, I did one day as a teaching assistant, I also did another stage crew job next door at The Ambassador,” he said.

“As an actor you have to be resourceful. For that one day of amazing achievement, there are hundreds of days of rejection and wondering where the next paycheck is coming from.

“But you don’t do it for that, you do it because you love it.”