The Customs House has announced the cast for the stage première of the North East classic TV series When the Boat Comes In, which will run at the South Shields venue from 15 to 25 August.
Taking the lead role of Jack Ford, the part originally played in the TV version by Sunderland-born James Bolam, will be Jamie Brown from Gateshead. Brown is no stranger to the Customs House, having played in The Machine Gunners, The Man and the Donkey and Romeo and Juliet. He also directed Geordie the Musical. Other theatre credits include Death at Dawn and Rainbird (Cloud Nine) and By the Pricking of My Thumbs (KG Productions). He is also a long-standing member of the Derby-based 1623 Theatre Company.
Jessie Seaton will be played by Alice Stokoe from Jarrow, who made her West End debut in Mamma Mia in 2014 and has since starred in touring productions of American Idiot and Sister Act.
Steve Byron, who has 25 years of experience working in community theatre in the region and is also a playwright (Bacon Knees and Sausage Fingers in which he both appeared and co-wrote with Gary Kitching and Walter, both at Alphabetti Theatre), plays Bill Seaton.
Janine Birkett (Billy Elliot, Coronation Street, Inspector George Gently, Emmerdale, Badger and Byker Grove on film and TV and work for the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, and Theatre By the Lake, Keswick) is Bella Seaton.
Tom Seaton will be played by Matt Howdon (Leaving for Curious Monkey at Northern Stage), Billie Seaton by Luke Maddison (Leaving, Geordie the Musical, The War of the Worlds for Northern Stage and Don’t Go Outside for Twenty Seven Productions), Matt Headley by Charlie Richmond (The Last Ship, The Machine Gunners and Romeo and Juliet for the Customs House as well as a string of pantos for the Tyne Theatre and Opera House) and Dolly Mather by Anna Bolton (Emmerdale, Doctors).
The final member of the cast is Sarah Balfour, from South Shields, who graduated from the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) last year and has since appeared in Hyem at Northern Stage, as Mary Routledge / Mrs Scrimgour.
The stage version of When the Boat Comes In is written by Peter Mitchell, son of the writer of the TV series, James Mitchell.
Director is Katy Weir, co-director of Tees Valley theatre company OddManOut, who said, “such an iconic piece of work requires an incredibly strong cast to take on the challenge and I believe that is what we have. I can’t wait to get started.”