Hanging round the Traverse Bar lands actor a starring role

The star of forthcoming play Pandas, Siu Hun Li, was offered the part after being spotted in the theatre bar by artistic director Dominic Hill.

His lucky break comes just weeks after theatre barman Steve McMahon was roped in to cover for an actor who was taken sick during the run of Four Parts Broken.

Mr Li, 31, was chatting with a friend in the bar when he caught the eye of Traverse artistic director Dominic Hill, who was in the process of casting Pandas, a romantic comedy-thriller set in China and Edinburgh.

The actor said: "I went in to see a friend in a play that was on at the time called The Three Musketeers. There was a girl in it, Cynthia (Erivo], that was at drama school with me. We were chatting in the bar afterwards, and it turned out that the artistic director Dominic Hill was standing just behind me.

"I wasn't aware he was looking for his cast and later on I got a call from my friend and she said 'I've been speaking to the artistic director and they said they're looking for a Scottish, Chinese male actor from Edinburgh'. It just ticked all my boxes."

In fact, the role of Jie Hui was so perfect for him, he added: "I would have been a bit gutted if anyone else had got the part."

Mr Hill said he had been delighted to spot Mr Li in the bar and to find out he was an actor. "Our show, The Three Musketeers and the Princess of Spain, was in full swing at the Traverse when I saw Siu with Cynthia from the cast in the Bar Caf, and asked her who he was. Our team then contacted his agent to find out if he was available, and are now delighted to be working with him for the first time."

Mr Li was born and brought up in Edinburgh after his parents moved to the city from China in the 1970s. After winning a place at the prestigious drama school, RADA, he moved to London to pursue his acting career, but is now back in Edinburgh for the production.

He said: "It's great to come back to Edinburgh anyway because I've got lots of friends and family up here. I've always had a really strong connection with the work that goes on up here, and the Traverse is a great place to be working as well, so it couldn't be any better."

Director Rebecca Gatward said she had been delighted to cast Mr Li. She said: "He came to do a reading for the play and it was fantastic. It just felt really coincidental and pretty lucky. I would imagine the pool of Scottish Chinese actors from Edinburgh is minute - it's almost written for him.

"I saw a kind of genuineness I suppose, a kind of authenticity. He just carries all that history with him in terms of being from Edinburgh and also being a member of the Chinese community in Edinburgh."

Pandas by Rona Munro previews on April 15 and 16 and runs from April 19 to May 7. For more details see www.traverse.co.uk.