Waiting For Gateaux, which makes a long-awaited return to the Customs House this week, is a play that has punched above its weight many times since its original production 10 years ago.

It was the first of our plays to sell out completely, 10 weeks before its opening night which left many people disappointed, including one very well-known star, of which more anon. It was the first of our plays to take us to the other side of the world when it made its New Zealand debut in Dunedin just a year later. It was the first of our plays to be used in schools – several students have used bits of it as their performance piece in drama exams. In short, like all good plays it’s taken us on an unexpected journey.

Not bad for a play whose genesis was a drunken conversation in a taxi between Trevor and Dennis Jobling, the director of our first play, Good To Firm on their way home to Newcastle after the final night of that play.  Dennis, who’d clearly had a few, was explaining how he wanted to stage a production of Waiting For Godot, starring the dynamic duo of the Customs House, Ray Spencer and Bob Stott. All of which was way too serious for Trevor, who no-one has ever accused of being deep. ‘You’d be better off staging it outside a cake shop and calling it Waiting For Gateaux’ he replied. The next day, despite the hangover, the idea remained and a new play was born.

The play pretty much wrote itself and was quickly added to the programme for the Customs House the following year. To generate interest and to see if we could involve some new talent Ed came up with the idea of arranging an open audition for the character of Raven, a young Goth. Even he, in his most optimistic frame of mind couldn’t have imagined how many would turn up. Our director, Jackie Fielding – whose recent tragic death makes this week’s re-staging almost unbearably poignant – was both horrified and typically professional. She made sure that every single one of the fifty-plus auditionees got a fair hearing, with the help of the selfless Chris Connel, who patiently sat and performed alongside each hopeful, some of whom had obviously never acted in their lives. Many, however, were great, including the eventual Raven, Viktoria Kay who has since become a stalwart of many of our shows. Another auditionee who made the short list that night was a young hopeful, Charlotte Riley, who is now, not only a star in her own right, with leading roles in World Without End, Peaky Blinders and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel, but also known as Mrs Tom Hardy. The tendrils of WFG can even reach Hollywood!

For the opening production Jackie recruited a fantastic cast with not only Viktoria but Angela Szalay, who’d also been in Good To Firm, Dave Whittaker, Heather Phoenix and Tracy Whitwell, who Ed and Trevor had lured back to her native North East after working with her on a TV pilot of their sitcom The Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Tracy’s partner at the time, and still, was Don Gilet who was then filming 55 Degrees North in the area, which helped us lure Tracy back. Don was filming during the run and thought he wouldn’t be able to see the show but a late change to his schedule meant he could suddenly fit in the closing night. He dashed across to South Shields, arriving just as the curtain went up only to find he couldn’t get in, there wasn’t an empty seat in the place! When we came out at the interval he was sitting in the café, bemoaning the fact that he wasn’t the kind of guy to try the ‘don’t you know who I am’ line.

Since that opening run WFG has gone from strength to strength. Because of its sell-out performance it returned to the Customs House a few months after its opening and sold out again. It then headed off to New Zealand where it opened at the Fortune Theatre in Dunedin before touring the South Island. The production was sponsored by the local Cadbury’s factory and, thanks to the support of some funding from the Chamber of Commerce, Ed and Trevor were in the audience for the opening night, which was an absolute hoot. A great deal of chocolate ended up in our luggage on the way home.

And it didn’t stop there. Not long after that WFG started a short tour of Number 1 theatres in England, culminating in another sell-out at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle and then several other tours of the UK, one of which starred the lovely Lisa Riley, who is as delightful in real life as she is on the telly. In her recent autobiography she said that WFG was ‘a wonderfully clever play’ and she remains a friend now. She recently came over to Newcastle to talk about working on a new Waugh and Wood play so watch this space.

And now it’s back. Given its track record of turning up surprises who knows what will happen next. Why not go along and find out?

Waiting For Gateaux is at the Customs House from Wednesday June 10 until Saturday June 13, curtain up at 7.30 with matinees on Thursday and Saturday at 2.30pm. It stars Paul Dunn, Laura Lonsdale, Phillippa Lyall, Sarah Boulter and Christina Berriman Dawson.

The post Food For Thought appeared first on Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood.

Jackie’s name won’t register with the vast majority of people reading this article but if you’ve been to a Durham Gala pantomime, attended a play at the Customs House in South Shields or at the Live Theatre in Newcastle in the past 20 years or watched TV programmes like Emmerdale or The Bill over the past decade the chances are you’ll have witnessed her work either as a theatre director or as a thespian. After studying drama at Manchester University and then training as an actress at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Barrow-born Jackie took occasional work on the boards or in the TV studio but her first love was as a theatre director.

Back in the day, people often spoke of “Jackie” and I first encountered this ubiquitous dynamo in around 2000, when I went to see the Boyle Ya Stotts troupe.

Three young lads – Wayne Miller, Iain Cunningham and Dale Meeks – wrote their own surreal comedy and, joined by Jackie (who also directed it) performed at the Customs House.

It was tremendous. Inspirational, in fact. It was exactly what I’d always wanted to do but, for me, until then, theatre was the preserve of the middle class; it said nothing to me about my life.

Trevor and I wrote our first play, Good to Firm, in 2002.  The first time we worked with Jackie was in 2005 when she directed Waiting For Gateaux. She was able to recruit a top-notch cast through her plethora of contacts. All 2,000 tickets were sold ten weeks before the first curtain up.  We were cockily riding high on the runaway success of Dirty Dusting. She allowed us into the read through – and then kicked us out of rehearsals! How could she do this to us!?

Of course she kept us informed about what was happening and proudly presented run- throughs and dress rehearsals where we discussed aspects of the show. It was a formula that was to work time and time again; we trusted her with our words.

Since then Waiting For Gateaux has toured the UK and New Zealand, has been used in school exams in the UK and Australia, and is a regular on the amateur and professional circuit today. Poignantly, a new production returns to Jackie’s beloved Customs House later this month.

She became our go-to director of choice and next directed The Revengers in 2005. That has subsequently had three productions, most recently in London four years ago. Then she took on our radio play Son of Samurai in 2008, which ran for a month at the Customs House and, in 2009, was the first North East play to be performed at the Latitude Festival.

Jackie was also an integral part of the production team involved with our trilogy of plays at the Customs House in 2010 (Good To Firm, Raising the Stakes and Photo Finish). Part of the marketing plan was to attend Newcastle Races where they promoted Good to Firm. Jackie had never been to the races. I’m not convinced she enjoyed the experience, she was happier conjuring up props and technical things from seemingly nowhere. Apparently her flat was an Aladdin’s cave.

A few years ago, we called on Mark Wingett to direct Alf Ramsey Knew My Grandfather to raise money for Darlington 1883 after the demise of Darlington Football Club. ”Alf Ramsey” is about the West Auckland miners who won the first world cup in 1909. Jackie, a staunch Manchester United fan, was Mark’s assistant director for the Darlington Civic Theatre run. The pair became instant firm friends and the production went like clockwork.

She loved the play and when we asked her to direct two scenes from the show for the Sir Bobby Robson 80th Birthday celebrations at The Sage, Gateshead, in 2013, her words were: “Yes! I’ve finally got my hands on Alf Ramsey.” If the show had been revived again she’d have undoubtedly have been at the front of the queue to lead the team.

In 2012, Trevor and I wrote a play called Amazing Grace, about Grace Darling, and toured it in the region. We had deliberately  chosen a young team to take the show on but, just to be on the safe side, brought in Jackie to give it that behind-the-scenes organisational support and experience they needed. She was fantastic. It was a huge success, playing to around 4,500 people. Typically, she refused to be paid the going rate for her role. It took a stand-up argument for her to take the cheque.

We had numerous heated discussions. Anyone in the arts who tells you they’ve never “had a cross word” won’t get far, simply because they haven’t got the courage to defend their ideas. She, like me, like all of us, could be a pain in the backside at times. Sometimes she was right, sometimes she was wrong, but the test of a person is how they respond afterwards. We didn’t always have time for a drink but there was always a hug.

Back in December 2013 I wrote a sketch show called The Laffalang that we performed at The Stand in Newcastle.  It was a charity event involving around 14 actors. We had 24 hours to rehearse it. I watched in amazement how experienced actors and performers responded enthusiastically to her direction. The Laffalang went great. Jackie, however, never saw it. She was up to her eyes directing another show – she’d helped us on her weekend off!

That reflected the type of altruistic person she was. Her work with Bold as Brass Young People’s Theatre Company and Ocean Arts, a voluntary organisation for adults with learning disabilities, meant a lot to her.  She asked me to write press releases and I wondered where she got the energy to give such commitment to so many groups.

It was at that first Laffalang that she met Ray Laidlaw who was performing in a sketch. Their paths crossed again at the Sir Bobby Robson event at The Sage and Ray invited her to get involved with Sunday For Sammy (SfS). Trevor and I write sketches for SfS and the last time we worked with Jackie was on the 2014 Sunday for Sammy at Newcastle City Hall. She was in the production team. It’s a tense, frenetic time with barely a day to get the show on. We hugged on stage. During the next 30 fraught hours we only had time to swap a few smiles.

Jackie attended subsequent Laffalang shows and Dracula: Die Laughing, a show I wrote for the 2014 Whitby Goth Festival. We performed “Dracula” at the Westovian Theatre in South Shields. Afterwards she approached me, giggling. I asked if she’d enjoyed the show. “Loved it!” she replied. That meant a lot.

Outside all the brilliant work she did with Trevor and me, I’d been hugely impressed when she performed in The Stars Look Down in 2004. She was outstanding. I once asked her why she never appeared in our plays. “I never get bloody asked!” she retorted. It was a professional and personal oversight, now a big regret. She left us aged only 47. I thought there’d be a lot more time.

We did recruit her to be in our BBC Roman-era radio sitcom set on Hadrian’s Wall, called It’s Grim Up North in 2011. She was superb.

It’s quite ironic that Jackie collapsed with a brain aneurysm during the re-run of The Man and the Donkey. It’s a cracking show and, I believe, the pinnacle of Jackie’s directorial prowess. I went to see it three times during its premiere run in 2011.

Sadly, her long-time partner Jeff Crowe passed away before he got the chance to see the show. But he, like many of us, knew Jackie to be the best theatre director in the region.

The tragedy is that she still had so much to offer.

Over the years, we’d been out for many beers and numerous curries, and vegetarian meals were prepared for her at our house. Jane and I would pick her up and drive her home to South Shields from far-flung shows and there was always good crack and banter, with a “thank you”, “take care” and a hug at the end.

I can’t say we were close friends but I know if I needed owt she’s be there, and vice versa. I’ll miss her personally and professionally. Many, many others will.

RIP Jackie Smith (stage name Fielding). And thanks.

X

A remembrance service in Jackie’s memory will take place at the Customs House, South Shields, on Sunday, September 13.

The post In memory of Jackie Fielding appeared first on Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood.

Written by Ed Waugh, Hadaway Harry, tells the story of how Harry, his three brothers and “Awld” Uncle Ned brought the coveted accolade to the region in June 1845.

When Harry and his brothers took the title from the London rowers on the Thames it caused a sensation locally and nationally.

The Blaydon Races was written for Harry and when he died in 1870, aged 57, more than 130,000 lined the streets of Newcastle to pay tribute to the “greatest rower of his generation”.

As well as being a champion sculler, Dunston-born Harry trained and influenced Geordie world champions and designed the rowing craft seen today at the Olympics and the Oxbridge boat race.

“This is a brilliant story of a true working class hero,” Ed explained.

“Harry was raised in Jarrow and later, as a Durham miner in Hetton le Hole, was involved in the Great Strike of 1831,  before becoming a professional rower.

Rowing, or aquatics as it was known in Victoria times, was the sport of the working class before football came along. Harry was known nationally and internationally as a champion and an innovator.

“Set against the background of the industrial revolution and the development of great cities like Newcastle, Harry’s is a story of the underdog fighting against all the odds to become a world champion.”

He added: “The region can proudly boast sporting greats and world champions like Brendan Foster, Alan Shearer, Jackie Milburn, Steve Cram and Glenn McCrory but Harry Clasper was arguably the greatest of them all.

“Sadly being a working class athlete in the Victorian era, his story was never documented. This is a small contribution to once again celebrating the achievement of a Geordie sporting hero.”

All the venues being visited have a resonance with Harry’s life.

Hadaway Harry has been supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and South Tyneside Council.

All tickets on the tour cost only £10 and can be obtained as follows:

TOUR DATES:

Marine Trust (Boathouse), South Shields  (0191) 4247788

Monday, June 29 – 2.30pm/7.30pm

Tuesday, June 30 – 2.30pm/7.30pm

Wednesday, July 1 – 2.30pm/7.30pm

Gala Theatre,  Durham (part of the Durham Miners Gala) 03000 266600

Thursday, July 2 – 7.30pm

Friday, July 3 – 2.30pm/7.30pm

The Low Light, North Shields (0191) 2574506

Saturday, July 4 – 7.30pm

Sunday, July 5 – 2.30pm/7.30pm

Discovery Museum, Newcastle (0191) 232 6789 or (0191) 2774100

Tuesday, July 7 – 7.30pm

Wednesday, July 8- 2.30pm/7.30pm

Thursday, July 9 – 2.30pm/7.30pm

Bede’s World, Jarrow (0191) 4892106 or 4247788

Friday, July 10 – 7.30pm

Saturday, July 11 – 2.30pm/7.30pm

The post Hadaway Harry appeared first on Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood.

Or that we would end up watching one of Ed’s oldest friends morris-dancing across the stage of the City Hall in Newcastle in front of 2,000 people.

Those two small snapshots illustrate the slightly insane nature of  the Sunday for Sammy charity event, funny, chaotic, a bit haphazard and completely unpredictable.

This was our first involvement in the event that raises hundreds of thousands of pounds to support young North East performers and it was an absolute hoot. We were asked to write a sketch for Denise Welch and Angela Lonsdale earlier last year and were delighted when our Community Service sketch was accepted for the show.  We were eagerly looking forward to rehearsals when, at the last minute, a gap appeared in the show and Ray Laidlaw, Lindisfarne legend, and one of the prime movers behind the charity, asked if we could help to fill it.  No pressure there then.

Somehow, three days later, we were sitting in the stalls at the City Hall watching a succession of stars play cameo roles in our hastily pulled together Speed Dating sketch. With the lovely Emmerdale star Charlie Hardwick leading the way we watched in awe as, in order of appearance, Brendan Healy, Pam Royle, Kevin Whately, Pete Peverley (twice), Les Robson, Ray Laidlaw, Chris Chittel, Billy Mitchell, Tim Healy, Ray Stubbs, and Chris Fairbanks all came on stage to pursue Charlie’s hand. We may have missed Brendan’s name out a few times there as he’s not a man who’s shy about reappearing at various unscheduled moments.

Quite how we got to that moment is still a bit of a mystery but it could only have been done with everyone pulling in the same direction and the commitment and ‘up for anything’ attitude of all the above and the show’s director Geoff Wonfor were major factors. The other major factor was our morris-dancing friend. The night before rehearsals we were told that we couldn’t have a morris dancer in the show as we had neither a spare man nor a costume. Several phone calls later a member of Hexham Morrismen had been tracked down and at 10 o’clock on Saturday morning a costume was duly delivered to the City Hall (thanks John!).  Now all we needed was a volunteer to wear it. Enter Les Robson, Ed’s oldest friend. Lured to the City Hall under slightly false pretences, having no idea that the show was on the next day and then finding out that the  costume was several sizes too big for him, Les threw himself into the role with some gusto and may well have stolen the show as you will be able to see when the video comes out. For now you can make do with this Sky News clip which captures the backstage ‘all-hands-to-the-pump’ vibe. Les is caught chatting to his new best friend Charlie Hardwick soon after the start (though sadly not in costume).

We’d really like to thank everyone involved for making it such a great laugh, Denise, Angela and Chelsea Halfpenny smashed the Community Service sketch – Denise was in great form all weekend especially given the media nonsense she’s had to put up with recently – and the Speed Dating went down a storm as noted in the reviews in the Journal and Chronicle.

Incidentally, for those who are interested in such things, Pam Royle opted for ‘willy’ at the matinee and ‘knob’ at the evening show.

The post Stars on Sunday appeared first on Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood.

The jury’s still out on why Hadrian had the wall built. It was generally a time of peace in the Empire, so it’s not ruled out that “old warty face” just wanted to keep the lads of his legions busy and out of trouble.

Unfortunately for him, where the men of the milecastle at Drizzlewort are concerned, he failed miserably. They quickly identify the opportunities to make a few dinera trading with the locals and creating a black market – it’s amazing how stones meant for the wall find their way to the construction of villas for the Pict chiefs!

Of course, the auxiliaries always have to be aware of the activities of the local revolutionaries – the Boadecia Resistance Army (BRA) – but a few spears to help their insurrectionary cause greases the wheels of trade.

Building the wall is a chance for these plucky soldiers from Britain, Italy, Algeria and other far-flung corners of the empire to broaden their horizons and sample a new culture. The only problem is they are stationed in a ramshackle milecastle where it rains incessantly and the food is rubbish, hence their common refrain, “it’s grim up north”.

We’d like to thank Jackie Fielding who directed and starred in the pilot episode and the other brilliant actors involved for giving up their time to record the show. Take a bow Dale Meeks, Dean Logan, Gary Kitching, Mat Hobbins and Karen Traynor. We love you all. No really.

We’d also like to thank John Scott for helping Trevor with the post-production work.

The idea was developed in conjunction with the Customs House which, despite being hamstrung by the Arts Council cuts, is finding new ways to continue its role as the champion of new writing in the North East. To this end they are working with other partners and we are grateful to Sunderland University for their support on this particular project. We’d particularly like to thank Lesley Younger for helping to set this up; Fred Marden for letting us use the brilliant facilities in the radio unit there and Grant Lowery and Craig Oliphant for guiding us through any technical difficulties.

You can listen to the full pilot episode of It’s Grim Up North here. If you like the show, feel free to pass the link around, put it on your website or twitter or Facebook or whatever else it is you kids do today. If you’re our age then just tell your mates. If you don’t like it keep schtum or we’ll send the boys round. And we mean that literally, have you seen Ed’s boys?

Ed would like to say that the title of ‘It’s Grim Up North’ does not reflect the writers’ true views of the area. It’s actually totally lush -  a fantastic area with wonderful countryside and national parks, stunning coastal stretches and castles, award-winning architecture and internationally acclaimed World Heritage sites as described at http://www.visitnorthumberland.com/ . (Will that do mate, I’m starting to doze off?).

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Having been brought up with the story of Grace Darling (me in Newcastle and Trevor in Leicester), the epic tale of this working class heroine from Northumberland has always been one of my favourite stories.

A few years ago I mentioned my fixation on Grace Darling to Trev and he revealed a similar interest. It was an amazing co-incidence and we knew we had to do something to pay tribute to her.

My notes show we started outlining work in July 2010. Prior to that we read anything we could get our hands on about Grace: books, plays, correspondence supplied by the Duke of Northumberland’s estate; old television programmes, articles and information on the internet, where Grace Darling has 22 million entries (Queen Victoria – an empress – has 23 million).

So what is so special about Grace Darling?

Born in Bamburgh, Northumberland, on November 24, 1815, she was the seventh of nine children and lived with her parents on Longstone lighthouse on the Farne Islands (or “Fern” Islands as they are colloquially referred to and spelled on older maps).

On September 7, 1838, aged 22, Grace and her father, William, selflessly rescued nine people shipwrecked on the notorious Harcar Rock. As a result of her bravery, Grace became the first woman to be awarded an RNLI Gallantry Medal and was catapulted into national and international stardom.

Overnight she became the first Victorian heroine. Patronised by London’s press, royalty and the aristocracy, her image was everywhere (on soap, annuals, chocolates etc) while plays, poems and songs were written about her. She died in 1842, aged 26, of TB – four years after the historical rescue.

Lots of tosh has been written about Grace in order to embellish the dramatic aspect of her personal story. The truth is, three months after the rescue she responded to the pressure of fame by becoming a recluse in the lighthouse, where her social position was to do domestic work for her mother and father. She died having never encountered romance.

We wanted to contrast today’s short-lived celebrity with a real celebrity but without resorting to using an X Factor type show or reality TV, all of which have been done to death.

But how could we tell the story of Grace, whose total existence was played out within Northumberland, having probably never travelled further than Berwick in the north and Alnwick to the south?

From a strict Christian background, there was no romantic attachment in her life and, unless we turned the large family into a singing troupe fleeing from marauding Scots or got birds and sea animals to help her make beds and wash dishes, there wasn’t much drama other than the heroic rescue itself.

The framework we decided on was to base it in the present on the set of a film being made about Grace Darling. This allowed us to include film as a backdrop and we’ve produced a script that is something completely different from our previous work. Of course, it will still be a very funny play but we have managed to stay true to the story of Grace Darling in an entertaining and dramatic way.

Research included a trip to Longstone lighthouse and numerous visits to the picturesque Bamburgh with its magnificent village, castle, coffee shops, pubs and restaurants (sometimes I question why I’m a writer, life is so tough).

We were also kindly invited to the RNLI Grace Darling Museum in Bamburgh to read a rare book by Grace’s older sister Thomasin who, sick of all the rubbish written about Grace detailed the true story of her sister in 1880. Holding the book, Grace Darling: Her True Story, felt like a direct link with the past.

What I particularly liked from the book was Grace’s response to the Duke of Northumberland when he enquired about her attitude to marriage. Her retort was “I have not got married yet for they say the man is master and there is much talk about bad masters” and that she intended to keep her own name: “…any husband should take it. It is a name of which my sons will be proud”.

This, from a woman in Victorian times whose social role was to be subservient and to know her place. Until the Conveyancing Act of 1881 married women (unmarried women weren’t considered worthy of inclusion) had no legal control of their finances or property – that was a man’s job! There was also a class issue involved. Given her national fame and the vast amounts of money being sent as gifts from well wishers, the Duke of Northumberland (as opposed to her father) became her patron, dealing with her finances and shielding her from many unsuitable marriage proposals.

At one point,  more than £1,000 had been sent to Grace from people all over the UK. Donations of £5 and £10 were common place from middle-class well-wishers while working people donated smaller amounts of their hard-earned money. The Duke, the wealthiest man in Northumberland, generously donated £1 (one pound) and invited Grace and her father to tea at Alnwick Castle – with the servants! Grace never touched a penny of the money.

To his credit, the Duke of Northumberland did go on to initiate the modern Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in 1854 (it was established as a charity in 1824 but less efficient), so there is a strong possibility that Grace acted as a catalyst for what is today the selfless charity that saves many thousands lives a year off UK coastlines.

I was amazed to learn that the Grace Darling Museum last year received more than 30,000 visitors, such is her lasting popularity. She is buried in the grounds of the beautiful St. Aidan’s Church (opposite the museum) and a stunning cenotaph celebrates her life.

There are lasting tributes to Grace throughout the UK and the world. Many countries have sea rescue heroines who are regarded as their own “Grace Darling” and her heroic act is part of the UK national curriculum. The 5’3” unassuming north eastern lass is featured on a stained glass window in Liverpool Cathedral, there’s a blue plaque to her in Hull (where the doomed SS Forfarshire sailed from), a tree has been planted for her in Battersea Park, London, an RNLI rescue boat in Seahouses, Northumberland, bears her name, while a 19^th century painting by William Bell Scott at Wallington Hall,  Northumberland, depicts her rescue. There is even a monument to her in St Thomas Church in Exeter, Devon (more than 300 miles from her lighthouse home) and a pub is named after her in Melbourne, Australia.

October 20, 2012, marks the 170^th anniversary of Grace’s death but her bravery, fortitude and memory will live forever. Amazing Grace is our humble contribution to that incredible heritage.

The post What’s all this about Grace Darling? appeared first on Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood.

Very few events beat the excitement, nervousness and expectation of an opening night.

More than 1200 people saw The Revengers over four days at the Customs House and The Tribune newspaper called the Chesterfield production “an example of great theatre”, but no matter how confident we are that The Revengers will rock in the capital, opening nights are always an adrenaline pumping time, hoping the actors remember their lines and that people get our sense of humour.

It’s a familiar sensation because we’ve had eight full plays produced since Good To Firm premiered at the Customs House in June 2002 but we take nothing for granted.

Fortunately all of our plays (except our most recent, Photo Finish for obvious reasons) have gone on to have at least one other production either locally, nationally or internationally and we have attended premieres in New Zealand, Ireland and the UK but we are particularly excited about returning to London following Maggie’s End in May 2009.

Maggie’s End (in which we killed off Margaret Thatcher) was the official focal point of the 25^th anniversary of the miners strike and played for two weeks at the 500-seat “off-West End” Shaw Theatre in Kings Cross, London. The show was seen by 2,000 people and went down a storm. We had a great time. Among the cast was the brilliant Sunderland lass Melanie Hill as well as The Bill and Eastenders stars Mark Wingett and Russell Floyd, all of which we’ve gone on to further work with.

One of the cast of Maggie’s End was Simon Nader, whom we admired as an actor and, like the aforementioned, established a friendship with. Last year, over a pint, we were telling Simon about The Revengers, which features a washed up former all-action television star whose marriage is on the rocks and whose life is turned upside down when a sinister but charming loan shark enters her life.

The Revengers, like Maggie’s End and our, as yet, unpremiered play God Only Knows (which is about teaching creationism in science in state schools), is markedly different from our out-and-out comedies (Dirty Dusting, Waiting For Gateaux, Good To Firm etc).

While still funny in places, The Revengers is darker and we wrote it as a three hander (three characters) so that it could be played in small venues to a more intimate audience.

When Simon read the script he really liked it. He wanted to play the loan shark and asked if he could direct the show at his local venue, which is the Barons Court theatre. It’s a cracking venue, below a real ale pub and the intimacy of the place will suit the piece perfectly. How could we refuse!

We’ve gone into the run with more than 300 tickets sold (which, we are told, for a London fringe venue is excellent pre sales), so we are confident that, after opening night, word of mouth and the reviews will kick in and The Revengers will quickly be playing to full houses.

It’s also noticeable how much easier it is in London to access the media and theatre’s movers and shakers. Unless you are a predominantly state subsidised theatre in the north east, the London-centric media don’t want to know. It’s crass really and reflects how out of touch many of these influential people are with grass roots theatre.

Our shows play to packed houses at the 440-seat Customs House and the 500-seat Gala theatre in Durham and Newcastle’s 1200-seat Theatre Royal and yet we can’t get theatre reviewers from the capital to travel three hours by train to see our work. However, they happily turn up to theatres in London that hold fewer than 100 people (and are normally less than half full). The idea that plays in London are somehow better than in the provinces is a complete misnomer.

It used to annoy me. It doesn’t now.  I read their glowing reviews of some dreadful national touring plays I’ve seen in the region and realise we have little in common when it comes to theatre. Hence the reason Trevor and I started writing back in 2002.

The Revengers is being funded by a profit share, which means the cast and technical staff only get paid once its outlay has been covered. Thankfully it’s already into profit, which bodes well for a future tour. Only one in ten London shows turn in a profit which is why so many theatres and theatre companies are dependent on state subsidies.

There’s something inside me that says it’s important to subsidise some theatres and theatre companies but there’s also something else that nags away: why should the taxpayer have to subsidise the middle classes to indulge in Shakespeare and other “classic” revivals while new, more innovative, writing is reduced to a minimum? Surely if these ancient plays were good enough they would appeal to people anyway! What I do know is that equal subsidies (or no state handouts at all) would revolutionise theatre and force producers to make the subject matter of plays more relevant to the lives of ordinary working people, most of whom only attend the theatre to see pantomimes or musicals.

Either way, we are always grateful first and foremost to everyone who buys tickets for our shows with their hard-earned money.

Theatre is a fantastic experience and we are proud that so many people come along to see our plays.  For as long as people want to see our work Trevor and I will keep writing. I just hope I can say that after The Revengers’ London jaunt.

The Revengers opens at the London fringe venue Barons Court theatre in West Kensington, on Monday, May 9, and runs until Saturday, May 21. Click here for further details.

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Not content with simply learning their lines and remembering where to stand (ok, there might be a bit more to it than that) they have taken to the streets of London to try and understand the problems facing one of the characters in the play, wheel-chair user Jimmy.

Simon Nader’s blog details their difficult experiences trying to negotiate London transport in a wheelchair.

This is just one of the many updates he’ll be filing over the coming weeks so if you want to keep up to speed with how things are going during rehearsals you can check the main blog on a regular basis

The Revengers is playing at the Baron Courts Theatre in West Kensington from Monday May 9th to Saturday 21st May, excluding May 16th.

It will star Sally Gilfillan, Jon Bradshaw and Simon Nader, who will also direct the play. Simon first worked with Ed and Trevor when he appeared in the London production of Maggie’s End.

Tickets are on sale, £12.50 full price, £10 concessions. Reservations can be made at the theatre box office on 020 8932 4747.  All tickets are paid for in cash on the night

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Simon is one of the biggest champions of new writing around and in his five years-plus at the Gala he has transformed the place from a struggling receiving house to a thriving, productive, forward-looking artistic hub.

From being a poorly-attended, barely-known theatre putting on low-grade touring shows and knock-off tribute bands in front of a handful of punters, the Gala was building up a real name for its own high-quality, in-house productions and large, highly-receptive audiences.

We were lucky enough to have two plays premiere at the Gala, Maggie’s End and Alf Ramsey Knew My Grandfather, both of which were directed by Simon.  Both plays went on to further success in London and at Newcastle’s Theatre Royal respectively, none of which would have been possible without his support and encouragement.

And we’re not the only ones to have had such support, Ian Skelton’s plays Beamish Boy, Get Off at Gateshead and Sun Trap all premiered there alongside new and original adaptations of more familiar material like The Likely Lads and All Creatures Great and Small and revivals of modern classics like Betrayal. They’ve even produced their own pantos, as I write Cinderella is playing to ecstatic full houses.

The casts for all of these productions were predominantly made up of  highly-talented North East-based actors who will now be wondering where their next crust is coming from.

I have little doubt that the loss of Simon and the concurrent funding cuts will mean the end of such productions and that the Gala will revert to its previous nondescript existence and will possibly even disappear completely in the not too distant future. I really hope not because I know from experience how professional and proud of their work the staff there are and they deserve better.

I’m not an expert on theatre funding but I know that the Gala doesn’t get any kind of direct grant from the Arts Council and has to rely on the financial support of Durham County Council, who, with the best will in the world, are to running theatres what Nick Clegg is to honouring pre-election pledges.  I don’t know how this anomaly has arisen but someone at the Arts Council should take a long hard look at the situation. It’s ridiculous that a city like Durham isn’t going to have a producing theatre of any kind.

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All three plays, Good to Firm, Raising The Stakes and Photo Finish, received great reviews and audiences have clearly enjoyed what they’ve been seeing. The Customs House audience is pretty special and definitely know how to have a good time. We were lucky enough to involve Mark Wingett, Russell Floyd and Jack Milner in the run, all of them working at the Custom House for the first time, and to a man they’ve been amazed by the warmth of the audience.

Anyway, the excitement’s over for now and it’s time for us to put some serious  time into a few new writing projects. With the current funding crisis it’s getting more and more difficult to get people to take a chance on new plays and new writing in general so we’re planning to spend the next six months to a year working on new material so that when (if?) the financial situation improves we’ll have plenty of things to tempt producers with. We’ve got a few ideas for films and sitcoms that we’ve wanted to work on for a while so now seems a good time. Most writers barely make a living at the best of times so its particularly hard in the current climate and we’re lucky that Dirty Dusting is still proving popular around the world – a New Zealand tour is on the cards for 2011 – and helps to keep the wolf from the door.

Given the difficulties it was great to see Fiona Evans’ new play The Price of Everything in Scarborough recently. The Stephen Joseph Theatre’s very impressive and it’s brilliant that they’ve taken a chance on a new play. Judging by the size and reaction of the matinee audience on the day I went the gamble’s paid off handsomely. Let’s hope other theatre manager’s can hold their nerve and follow suit – maybe one day we’ll see a new play by a North East-based writer actually open in Newcastle!

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