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School
& Youth Theatre
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The South Tyneside StoryThe ScenarioSouth Tyneside: Past, Present and Future (Working title) A performance piece for presentation in the Millennium Dome on 7th July, 2000 by Peter Lathan Scenario A large screen is suspended, flown, or otherwise positioned towards the front of the stage. Onto this is projected a video of scenes from South Tyneside (including, but not limited to, Souter Point, St Paul's Church, Bede's World, Marsden Rock, the first lifeboat), ending with a head-on shot of the Town Hall with the three statues (Queen Victoria and the two torch-bearers). This shot is held. The video is accompanied by live or recorded music (Springfield Wind Band?). The screen is flown out or otherwise removed so that the projected scene falls across the stage, on which, positioned exactly, are three plinths with live versions of the statues. The video fades out as moonlight fades up. We hear the sound of a lone car fading into the distance and the clock strikes four in the morning. After a slight pause the two torch bearers begin to move. They are stiff and aching, having held their position for hours. They begin to talk: it is a little time before "Queen Victoria" joins in, because she has a sense of superiority because of being the "queen". They are ordinary women who do this as a job. Their husbands are out of work and this is the only way they can support their families. As they talk, we gain a sense of the quiet desperation of trying to make ends meet and bring up their children properly. We also begin to recognise their determination to do what is right for their families, no matter what the personal cost to them, and we see their indomitable spirit. Through their conversation - they become, as it were, narrators for the scenes which will follow - we see that this has been the lot of the ordinary woman of South Tyneside throughout the ages. The men may go to war, dig the coal, build the ships (etc. etc. etc.), but it is the women who are the anchors of the family. We see brief glimpses of times past - through drama, dance, video, song - and we have an increasing sense that the future will be the same. They may express optimism that their daughters will not have to struggle as they and their forebears did, but we, the audience, will see that nothing changes. Possible scenes:
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