John Godber’s latest play, The Empty Nesters’ Club, comes to Durham’s Gala Theatre as the first stop in its 22-venue national tour.
Produced by The John Godber Company and Theatre Royal Wakefield, and directed by Godber himself, The Empty Nesters’ Club takes a look at the pain of the ‘empty nest’ and what befalls parents after the children have outgrown the family home.
Newly bereft mum Vicky Barret, whose daughter has recently left for university in London, prepares for the inaugural meeting of her new support group—the titular Empty Nesters’ Club—by reflecting on the upheaval of letting go of her not-so-little girl.
Expect stories of empty bedrooms, freshers’ flu, boyfriends, long goodbyes, motorway service stations and trips to Ikea—and how Vicky fought back to be the woman she is today: exhausted!
The production is the fifteenth by the Godber Company and the Theatre Royal Wakefield since the playwright set up the company after leaving Hull Truck where he had been Artistic Director for 26 years.
The cast is Robert Angell as Phil Barret, Jane Hogarth as Vicky Barret and Josie Morley as Mollie Barret.
The Empty Nesters’ Club is at the Gala on 6 and 7 February, and then moves on to Middlesbrough Theatre (8 to 11 February), returning to the North East for one night (28 February) at the Queen’s Hall in Hexham.
The tour also takes the show to Peterborough, Chesterfield, Tewksbury, Barrow in Furness, Keswick, Kendal, Lowther, Rhyl, Sale, Boston, Newark, Scarborough, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Huddersfield, Winchester, Doncaster, Hull and Chipping Norton, ending in Newbury on 27 and 28 April.