The People’s Theatre launches comedy drama season
Image: Jake Wilson Craw as ‘Babbs’ in Charley’s Aunt
A classic farce kicks off a spring season filled with comedy at The People’s Theatre in Heaton as it continues its fundraising drive to develop the venue.
Brendan Thomas’ Charley’s Aunt kicks off a year with a healthy helping of comedy theatre on Newcastle’s Coast Road, with productions from playwrights including Alan Ayckbourn, Tony Roper and Richard Harris.
First produced in 1892, Charley’s Aunt is set amongst the leafy cloisters and ‘dreaming spires’ of Oxford University, and is described by the theatre as “Some Like It Hot meets The Importance of Being Earnest”.
Jack and Charley are jolly undergraduates with a burning desire to spend time with their sweethearts, Kitty and Amy, and the imminent arrival of Charley’s aunt from Brazil provides the perfect opportunity.
However, when auntie is delayed, desperate Jack and Charley persuade their fellow student Lord Fancourt Babberley to impersonate the missing aunt.
A season of laughs
Charley’s Aunt is the first production in The People’s Theatre’s spring and summer programme, which is brimming with comedy.
Amongst more serious productions, including Tom Kempinski’s Duet for One, something set in Scotland by someone called Bill Shakespeare, and a play commemorating the anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War, the theatre’s comedy drama continues in April with Tom Roper’s modern classic comedy The Steamie, about 1950s working class life set at Hogmanay in Glasgow.
April also sees a musical comedy version of The Addams Family penned by Marshall Brickman, who co-wrote the screenplays to Woody Allen’s most revered films – Annie Hall and Manhattan – and Rick Elice.
Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman in Mind, a dark comedy about a woman’s mental collapse after being knocked unconscious by a garden rake, arrives in May, alongside Richard Harris’ Stepping Out which received the Evening Standard Comedy of the Year Award and was later adapted into a musical comedy film starring Liza Minnelli and Julie Walters.
Fundraising drive
The announcement of the productions come as the theatre continues its aim to raise £1.5 million to refurbish and develop the theatre.
The Theatre’s president, Michael Chaplin, whose acclaimed play Tyne is being restaged later this year by The Customs House and Newcastle’s Theatre Royal following an acclaimed, sell-out run at the Live Theatre, has asked for patrons’ help to raise the money.
He said: “We’d really like your support for our fundraising campaign so that we can continue our unique, 100-year success in making great participation theatre, and arts activities that are accessible and inclusive for everyone.”
The theatre aims to create a new Studio Theatre space at ground level, provide full access to all areas of the venue for wheelchair users, and introduce more environmentally-friendly heating and lighting systems.
Charley’s Aunt runs at The People’s Theatre from Tuesday 21 January 2014 to Saturday 25 January 2014. Tickets are available on the door, from the theatre’s website, or by calling 0191 265 5020.
