Gaslight on Grey Street, by Newcastle-based playwright Janet Plater, is to have a rehearsed reading as part of the Women in the West End Festival, organised by Anonymous Is a Woman Theatre Company, at London’s Arts Theatre on Tuesday 15 March.
“It’s not what we expected,” Plater said. “We went to meeting, alongside about twenty other writers and companies, to pitch for performing an extract in what is a kind of scratch night focusing on the representation of women on the stage but they said they’d like us to do the whole thing as a rehearsed reading on a different day.
“It’s really very flattering, because only three plays are being given readings. The others are Imogen Stubbs’s We Happy Few and Aphra Behn’s 1686 play The Lucky Chance.”
Gaslight on Grey Street is set in 1854. Newcastle-born actress Julia St George is returning home to perform at the Theatre Royal after having success in London. Waiting excitedly to meet her and perform alongside her are two local actresses, Fanny and Emily. The play chronicles her return and gives us an insight into the lives of women in nineteenth century theatre as they try to balance society’s ideal view of womanhood with the demands of their profession.
It also touches on local events of the time, such as the Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead, and shows that, as the song “Canny Newcastle”—which is used in the play—says, Newcastle’s as good as London any day!
It was originally produced on Newcastle’s Theatre Royal Studio in 2013 with NE actresses Samantha Phyllis Morris, Caroline Deverill and Christina Berriman Dawson and they will be reprising their roles at the Arts Theatre. They will be joined by a London actress who will read the stage directions.
“There are script changes, of course,” said Plater. “You’re never satisfied with what you write, but Sam, Caroline and Christina have taken them in their stride and we’re all looking forward to the London reading.”
Janet Plater is the daughter of playwright Alan Plater and is the region’s leading actors’ agent and provider of extras for film and TV. Gaslight was her first play to receive a full production.
The rehearsed reading is at the Arts Theatre in Leicester Square at 2PM on 15 March. The Festival itself runs until 3 April.