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Articles
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North East Theatre in 2007Dateline: 30th December, 2007We're very conscious at the BTG that our NE coverage - at least as far as reviews are concerned - is not as wide as it should be. We do a reasonable job of covering productions in Tyne and Wear and Durham but don't do so well in the south of the region, with very patchy coverage in Stockton and none at all in Darlington, Billingham, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool or Richmond (and, to be honest, little in Northumberland too). That's all down to the fact that our reviewers are all based on Tyneside or Wearside. We have tried - without success so far - to find a Teesside-based reviewer. The biggest concentration of professional theatre in the region, of course, is in Newcastle, where we have the Theatre Royal, Northern Stage, Live Theatre and, coming on stream very recently, The Round. Staying on Tyneside we have the Customs House in South Shields and Whitley Bay Playhouse, which is currently closed. To the north is the Alnwick Playhouse, home of NTC Touring Theatre, and the Berwick Maltings, and to the west the Queen's Hall in Hexham. Moving south, we have the Sunderland Empire, the biggest theatre in the region both in terms of seating capacity and size of stage. To the west is the Gala in Durham and as we move further south we have the Billingham Forum, the Arc in Stockton, the Town Hall Theatre in Hartlepool, the Middlesbrough Theatre, the Civic Theatre and the Arts Centre in Darlington and finally the Gerogian Theatre Royal in Richmond. Most are receiving houses. During the year the Theatre Royal opened new public areas, including a small studio theatre for use by the education department, a meeting room, bistro and box office. As always the Theatre Royal had the most varied programme this year, ranging from dance (Rambert, NDT2, Alvin Ailey, New Adventures), through opera (six productions from Northern Opera), light comedy (Charley's Aunt), thrillers (The Unexpected Guest), musicals (Aspects of Love, Beauty and the Beast, Footloose) to the National Theatre (The Seafarer and a return visit of The History Boys) and the RSC. The RSC's Newcastle season this year, in fact, was quite spread out because of the Complete Works season in Stratford, with William Houston, Janet Suzman and Tomothy West in Coriolanus, Dash Arts's wonderfully inventive A Midsummer Night's Dream and, for many, the highlights of the year: Ian McKellen and William Gaunt in Trevor Nunn's productions of King Lear and The Seagull. As always the RSC season spread into another theatre. For the past couple of years it has been the People's Theatre, but this year Northern Stage, previously closed for redevelopment, had re-opened and played host to Macbeth, Ionesco's Macbett, Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad and, in Stage 2, the forerunner of Anthony Neilson's God in Ruins, at that time just a work in progress and therefore not reviewed alhtough greatly enjoyed. In its first full year since its major - radical! - refurbishment, Northern Stage has been both a producing and a receiving house. As the latter it has taken the kind of production which would not suit the Theatre Royal. Amongst these were Headlong's mammoth and exciting production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Told By An Idiot's Casanova and Cheek By Jowl's Russian Three Sisters. In-house productions this year ranged from the very intimate Ruby Moon in Stage 1 to the epic revival of Our Friends in the North, as well as two Christmas shows, Tattercoats for the very young and a fine - and rather different - A Christmas Carol. Staying in Newcastle, Live Theatre re-opened in the latter part of the year with Lee Hall's The Pitman Painters, which only sold out very soon after tickets went on sale and then, when a extra week was added, it too sold out before the theatre could even send out a prress release! Since then it has been broadcast on Radio 3 and is due to be revived in Newcastle and visit the National Theatre. Live also programmed a series of short lunchtime productions at The Apartment, a bar-bistro in Newcastle, and at the Queen's Hall in Hexham, and also yet again gave space to the Northumbria Live Academy, a post-graduate course jointly run by Northumbria University and the theatre, which presented a deeply moving original piece of verbatim theatre, Motherland. The refurbishment has led to more and more comfortable seats, new public areas, including stalls and circle bars which replace the old bar which was actually in the auditorium, as well as a new entrance, foyer and box office. A new venue opened in the latter part of the year. The Round - a small theatre-in-the-round venue - is the home of Bruvvers, a company which has been going for more than 35 years. Currently it is programming mainly children's shows. Peter Lathan
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