On 21 May 2017, South Shields FC (The Mariners), which plays in the Northern Premier League Premier Division, won the FA Vase, a culmination of quite a number of years of success, winning their division championship (and therefore gaining promotion) three years running. There were huge celebrations in the town as their club were having much greater success than their much larger neighbouring teams, Newcastle United and Sunderland.
Fans Iain Cunningham and Dale Meeks of Shields-based Boyle Yer Stotts Productions have written a play, Everywhere We Go, in celebration of the Mariners’ achievement in the FA Vase and today casting for the production was announced.
The cast is Wayne Miller, Craig Richardson, Luke Maddison and Jill Dellow who play four fans who follow with passion the team’s progress on the road to Wembley.
Wayne Miller was one of the original members of Boyle Yer Stotts and has since carved out a career in NE theatre, including panto at the Customs House as well as playing Elfluent the Naughty Elf (and writing and directing) in the venue’s Christmas shows for young children for the last ten years. He also appeared in The Big Time (which he wrote), End of the Pier, Hadaway Harry, The Machine Gunners: The Musical and Alf Ramsey Knew My Grandfather.
Craig Richardson has appeared in panto at The Customs House and played Jacks, alongside Wayne Miller’s Jerry, in The Big Time at the Edinburgh Fringe last summer.
Luke Madison last appeared at the Customs House in When the Boat Comes In in both 2018 and its revival earlier this year. He also appeared in WORMTOWN, part of last year’s Takeover Festival at the venue, as well as in The War of the Worlds at Northern Stage, a national tour of Leaving for Curious Monkey and The Filleting Machine for Blowin’ a Hooley Theatre.
Jill Dellow played Aunt Bella in My Uncle Freddie at The Customs House last year. Her other stage credits include The Dirty Flea-Bitten Scrounging Bastard, Influence and numerous other productions for Cloud Nine Theatre Company and Day of the Flymo at Newcastle’s Live Theatre. She also played Lady Capulet in the Customs House production of Romeo and Juliet.
The two writers, Iain Cunningham and Dale Meeks, are also actors and both have appeared on the Customs House stage. Cunningham appeared in Romeo and Juliet and both were part of The Tempest’s comic trio. Meeks had a long-running part in Emmerdale some years ago and a West End appearance in yet another football-related play, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Beautiful Game.
Everywhere We Go will play at South Shields’ Customs House from 22 to 25 May. Tickets, priced from £14, are available from the box office on (0191) 454 1234 or online.