A special production of John Godber’s Happy Jack is to be performed at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme to celebrate the Victoria Theatre Company’s 60th anniversary of theatre making.
Happy Jack was Godber’s first play which he wrote when he was 25. He will appear with his wife Jane Thornton in the show which brought them together more than 40 years ago.
They play lifelong lovers Jack, a stoical, stubborn and truculent miner, and Liz, his effusive, optimistic, long-suffering wife. Between them, they rub along in an old-fashioned marriage, creating lasting memories with an affection for each other that is as deep as the pit Jack works in. They are a working-class couple who do not ask for much and who are learning to live with what little they have.
It will be a bespoke production from the John Godber Company to celebrate 60 years of theatre making in-the-round in Stoke, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire.
Godber said, “Happy Jack obviously means so much to Jane and me because it was the play that brought us together.
“The surrounding hinterland to the play is industrial hardship, lack of ambition, thwarted opportunities and a life with little or no disposable income. But the knowledge of continuous work gave the miners of the past something to take pride in.
“All that has gone, though the hardships of the past may just be beginning to bite again as we look towards an uncertain future. The play is a memory play, which recalls imprecisely a marriage that spans 50 years.
“The ups and downs and the joys and sadness within a relationship are timeless. What the play manages to achieve in a short space of time illustrates a whole proud, loving community which sadly is no longer with us.”
Happy Jack can be seen at the New Vic from Thursday 21 until Saturday 30 April.