Thoughts from the South of the Region
Helen Brown remembers her 2013.
Picking up the pen for the southern end of the North East where my inkwell lives, firstly to agree with most of what Mr Lathan has written, since we often meet for a tab on the dark pavements outside the theatres in the region.
Best production at Northern Stage for me was new young writer, Tom Wells’s Jumpers For Goalposts with Denis Potter’s Blue Remembered Hills coming in at a photo-finish second. Northern Stage was also my favourite venue, especially since the installation of Erica Wyman’s replacement, Lorne Campbell, who has injected a warm and welcoming energy into the building.
Before I move to round up my little geographical area, I’d like to linger for a moment on a few other memorable productions. At Northern Stage, a little gem of a production, Found by Black Coffee Theatre from writer and director Luke Adamson. So good to see a young local company with imagination as well as a huge amount of talent.
From much earlier in the year, Newcastle company Tender Buttons director Tess Denman-Cleaver proved the imagination of her company with a totally bonkers yet very thought-provoking, production of Susan Sontag’s wonderfully worrisome tale Alice in a Bed in the freezing cold Stephenson Works, Newcastle.
Sunderland Empire made me cry in 2013, and more than once at the same production: Michelle Magorian’s wonderfully tender Goodnight Mister Tom—a great performance from Alan Vicary as old Tom and superb puppetry from Elisa de Grey, that cloth dog, Sammy, was amazing.
A must mention for Newcastle Theatre Royal’s Royal Shakespeare Company’s season: who could forget As You Like It from director Maria Aberg and the terrific Pippa Nixon who gets my award for best actress; she of the gamine Ganymede, our Rosalind.
My little area of Teesdale has more sheep than audience members, so it’s hardly surprising that there’s really only one venue of note and that’s the unique Georgian Theatre in Richmond. It is always an excellent experience to sit in the auditorium where the presence of those feisty Ghosts from the past is always palpable. Financial pressures mean this little diamond of a theatre only does very short runs, a ghastly galloping trend, but still as the smallest receiving theatre in the region, it always shows good taste and variety.
Best of the Georgian’s bunch was The Taming of The Shrew from Shakespeare’s Globe Touring director Joe Murphy and his all-female cast, which nicely turned the tables on the story with a dash of pepper sneezing furtively at chauvinism. Other noteworthy productions includes La Bohème from OperaUpClose, which dared to produce Puccini’s opera in English. Priceless to hear a brilliant Nicolas Dyer’s Marcello singing, "Rudolpho, you are such a bastard".
A little bit of home-grown talent is always welcome too; none better than North Country Theatre director Nobby Dimon and his hilarious adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World with the Georgian’s favourite actor, Dominic Goodwin as the explorer Challenger.
It is congratulations again too for the third year that The Georgian managed to produce its own pantomime under the expert direction of Tony Lidington, who produced a real Christmas cracker, Cinderella—with a delightfully awkward little shetland pony called Charlie. Oh and the announcement is already made that this tenacious little theatre will be producing panto again in 2014—Puss in Boots (I hope there’s going to be a giant cat!).
Late in the year, November to be precise, saw the opening of a new venue, The Witham—that grumpy old man of a building that stands central to Barnard Castle and is testament to the times of Mechanics Institutes. A £3.5 million pound refurbishment project has given much needed surgery, and it now boasts raked seating and modern facilities. I’m impressed with what I’ve seen so far, although as yet I’ve not managed to see anything in performance, which I’m hoping to rectify in the not too distant future.
I saw a great production of crime writer Val McDermid’s My Granny is a Pirate at Bishop Auckland Town Hall. North East actress Jane Holman proved to me that there is no such thing as an ordinary granny.
I do also love a surprise and I certainly got one at Crook Hall Gardens, a most beautiful venue that dozes quietly on a tapestry of enchanting gardens within sight of Durham’s amazing cathedral. The Pantaloons, a lively little company of five actors, produced a very credible out-door production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Another delightful outdoor production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream took place in the grounds of The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle. Local amateur company The Castle Players with professional director Simon Pell produced a hugely enjoyable version.
Saving the best to last, as per the formulae for this sort of thing, I’m going to pluck my best actor from an obscure production of The Heart of a Dog at Whorlton Village Hall, near Barnard Castle. Based on the book of the same title by Mikhail Bulgakov and written from the dog’s perspective, this one-man show, adapted, directed and acted by Gordon Duffy-McGhie, was weird and wonderfully whacky. Duffy-McGhie produced a savage vision of the monstrously funny dangers of canine cosmetic surgery.