Playwright back on home ground for Gala production
2:22pm Friday 19th September 2008
WASHINGTON actor/musician Peter Peverley, the former Northern Stage stalwart, opted to pack his Bobby Thompson tribute act away in a suitcase when he was offered the chance to take a leading role in North-Eastbased comedy-drama, Get Off At Gateshead, which opened last night.
Peverley pops up regularly in the Tyne Tees TV series Show People, dedicated to the region's club acts, but couldn't resist an invitation from Durham Gala Theatre artistic director Simon Stallworthy to join a cast at the venue to take the lead role of Mark.
Get Off At Gateshead, which runs until September 27, is written by Chester-le-Streetborn Ian Skelton and follows part of his own life when he set out to London to try and become a pop/rock star.
Playwright Skelton is now based in Brighton and scored a hit at the Gala with his first play, Beamish Boy, last year.
His plot is of a father and son (the impressive Donald McBride and Peverley) attempting a reconciliation leading to a meeting between Mark and old flame Angela (Jackie Fielding), who is caring for her mother (Rosalind Bailey) with Alzheimer's.
Skelton reveals: "After Beamish Boy, a friend said I should write something called Get Off At Gateshead because it's a great title and I've just beaten a book out which had the same title. So that was fortunate. But I happened to be writing a piece about people coming back to the North-East anyway. I think this coming home to the North-East' thing is the biggest feeling that people have for the subject. I don't think you could have a better stage set than the Tyne Bridge and it is almost like a theatrical experience when you walk along there at night.
It is a completely iconic mental landscape that people carry around with them."
Peverley says: "The emotional journey of the characters is really strong and everything, touch wood, seems to be working. When you are discussing scenes, you can talk for hours and hours, but we've had two-and-a-half weeks to put it on and decide what the characters are thinking and what they're not saying. All of that stuff. It's been great to get stuck in and get this play on its feet."
Skelton adds: "I'd written some fantastic lines about how this character might feel having been away and coming back and wondering if you can return. I also had Donald McBride in mind for the father. So I came up with the father and son and mother and daughter idea.
"Beamish Boy suffered a little by being written for TV and then turned back into a stageplay.
I think this is hopefully a better stage work because it was conceived from the outset as four strong characters.
"I know that Simon is trying to find an audience that is special to the Gala and I don't think that you could write a play about teenagers and expect them to turn up."
Peverley feels a sell-out Gala night of his Bobby Thompson tribute act in May - seen on Tyne Tees last month - led to the offer of a role in Get Off At Gateshead. "It's the 20th anniversary of Bobby's death this year and I did a tour which took in all mid-scale venues and we had a sell-out at Durham. It was probably the show here and at South Shields which were the high points of the tour."
Tickets are £13 (£12 conc, £10 Friends and Matinee; Pay What You Like Night is on Monday). Box Office: 0191- 332-4041.
● The Durham and Chesterle- Street branch of the Alzheimer's Society will be holding collections at the theatre throughout the show's run. For advice and information about the condition, contact the Alzheimer's Society on 0191-389-0400.