Celebrate Live Theatre’s 50th Birthday

Located just a stone’s throw away from the River Tyne, this year Newcastle institution Live Theatre celebrates its 50th birthday. Founded in 1973 by theatre director Geoff Gillham and actress Val McLane, they moved to the current premises on Trinity Chare in the early 1980’s. Early work was of a particularly political nature, mostly due to Gillham’s membership of the Workers Revolutionary Party, and the theatre’s output since has often sought to tell the stories of working-class Tyneside, which resulted in an alliance with The Amber Films and Documentary Photography Collective (later known as The Side Gallery) early on.
 

In 1974, North Shields fish merchant Tom Hadaway’s play, The Filleting Machine, was the first production which signified a movement away from the theatre devising its own material, and today the theatre continues to put writers and the development of new plays at the forefront of their ethos.

Image: Jacqui Kell

We caught up with Executive Director and Joint Chief Executive Jacqui Kell to find out how the theatre is celebrating its half century, and she explained why Live Theatre is such an important place: “It’s very, very special. The building itself is warm and welcoming, the team are great and our small auditorium is intimate. There really isn’t a bad seat in the house but it’s the work we put on stage that makes it really special - amazing things happen there that I often can’t describe. I’d encourage anyone to come and visit to see and feel what I mean.”
 

Live Theatre is also home to region’s biggest free youth theatre group, open to people aged 10-25. Live Youth Theatre meet weekly throughout the school year and young people get the benefit of hearing from some of the region’s most exciting theatre makers. Live Theatre also support young people to achieve Arts Awards qualifications with the addition of post-show talks and workshops alongside supporting schools in strengthening their arts provision and they offering teachers CPD sessions and story workshops too.

Image: Without Us by The Lawnmowers Theatre Company

Jacqui explains why the nurturing of new talent is such an important part of what they do. “As a theatre focused on new writing and work it’s really important we support the development of new talent otherwise these stories of the region just wouldn’t emerge. We are also providing creative opportunities in the region - we want artists to be able to live and work here and not have to move south for opportunities. Lee Hall, writer of Billy Elliot said only recently ‘Live Theatre has been the most important and defining influence on all my writing’. I’m really pleased that in the time I’ve been at Live writers have not only written brilliant work for our stage but also TV and radio. The creative industries are such an important sector here and Live Theatre is an important part of it.”
 

The theatre has given many household names their first break, from actors including Robson Green, Tim Healy, Charlie Hardwick and Denise Welch, to writers like Lee Hall, Alan Plater and Julia Darling. From the early agitprop days to the current roster of cutting edge productions, Live Theatre’s aim has always been to challenge perceptions. Writers like Lee Hall, Shelagh Stephenson and Paddy Campbell have produced productions which shine a light on regional experiences. In fact, Paddy Campbell’s Wet House – commissioned as part of the theatre’s 40th birthday season – was one of Jacqui’s favourite shows.

“It made me laugh and cry but it also makes you challenge perceptions. I’m not the only one who loved it, it’s proven popular with our audience and was voted the play they most wanted to see again. As a result there is a special reading of it in April and we’re fortunate the majority of the original cast will be taking part.”
 

The stories from often unheard voices also inspire Jacqui. “I also love seeing our shorter pieces of work at the Your Voices NE and Elevator Festivals from early career writers. Most recently though I was blown away by One Off, a prison-based drama written by Ric Renton about his personal experience of the prison system. We and our audiences are so fortunate to be able to see these pieces of work, most often, for the first time ever.”

Image: Jimmy Nail

Live music has often been a big part of the offering too, both within productions and as stand-alone events - just ask the likes of Jimmy Nail and Sting who are performing sold out shows at the venue in April as part of their Live Encounter series! Theatre and music go hand in hand, as is evidenced from the blossoming career of Whitburn songwriter Nadine Shah, who recently made her theatrical debut in Northern Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Titania, and now graces Live Theatre with her very own production, To Be A Young Man (4th-20th May) created alongside co-writer Jackie Thompson, which is a theatrical response to Nadine’s first album released a decade ago.

It’s a production that Jacqui mentions as a particular highlight in the coming season. “We’ve just launched our new season which includes special visits from Sting, Jimmy Nail and Stewart Lee and more, but really they are there to support our work with new and emerging writers, so we have a full season of exciting new pieces of work including musician Nadine Shah’s debut as a playwright as well as performing in it (To Be a Young Man). I’m especially looking forward to Elijah Young’s play, Cold Buffet [5th-28th October] a good old family drama.”

Image: Nadine Shah

Other notable productions to keep an eye out for include Three Acts of Love (30th November-16th December) - a feast of music and drama from three ground-breaking female playwrights, Laura Lindow, Naomi Obeng and Vici Wreford-Sinnott - and Elevator Festival, the theatre’s celebration of brand new writing (27th June-8th July). Local theatre companies like Curious Monkey and The Lawnmowers also have exciting up and coming productions in September and June respectively and there’s a brand new North East Playwriting Award on the cards for January 2024.

So, while Live Theatre may be celebrating its 50th birthday, it’s clear they’re not ones for resting on their laurels or counting past glories; instead, they’ll do what they always do – champion the vibrant talent of the North East, and offer audiences brilliant, accessible and thought-provoking productions for the next 50 years and beyond!