North East theatre companies Blowin’ a Hooley, Cloud Nine and The Worriers and musicians Celia Bryce and Colin Bradshaw, George Welch and Christine Jeans and Jamie Brown are joining together with North Shields Heritage Action Zone and The Exchange in Howard Street to celebrate the town.
On 18 September at 7:00, The Exchange, in partnership with CaroleW Productions, will present Tales & Scales, an evening of three new plays:
The Filleting “App”
Written by Alex Oates
Presented by Blowin’ a Hooley
Performed by Harriet Ghost & Micky McGregor
A loving answer to Tom Hadaway’s classic The Filleting Machine first written almost 50 years ago. The play finds the same family living and working in North Shields today and asks what, if anything, has changed for ‘Ma’ and ‘Da’ in the intervening years.
Fire and Water—The Thomas Brown Story (begins)
Written by Peter Mortimer
Presented by Cloud Nine Theatre
Performed by Anthony Broderick, Anna Marie Davis & Eleanor Beck
Directed by Neil Armstrong
The opening scenes of the remarkable true story of a 15-year-old North Shields lad whose heroic action in helping salvage vital Enigma Code documents from a sinking German U-Boat helped shorten World War II. Full production coming in November.
Preaching to the Bottom of the Glass
Written by Steve Byron
Presented by The Worriers
Performed by Karen Traynor & Jack Lloyd
Onto streets soaked in beer and bounty from the sea comes a saviour, following in the footsteps of Wesley, to save the folk of Shields with no wish to be saved.
Tickets are Pay What You Feel.
This is the first of three such evenings of theatre and music leading up to a community play in early summer 2023 for which writer Steve Byron will be seeking out stories of those who have lived and worked and passed through the commercial centre of North Shields.
Anyone with reminiscences or stories to tell should contact the team at [email protected]