Preview: The Steamie – People’s Theatre, Newcastle

One of the most performed comedy plays in Scotland comes to Tyneside this week.

‘The Steamie’, a comedy written by Tony Roper of Rab C. Nesbitt fame, is set at Hogmanay and the women are working in the steamie, as usual, washing and drying clothes and blankets for their families.

The comedy play centres on the lives of a group of four women: Magrit (Sarah McLane), Dolly (Anna Dobson), Doreen (Jessica Hannah) and Mrs Culfeathers (Maggie Watson) as they work in a Glasgow steamie, a communal washhouse.

It’s the early 1950s, and the women are concerned about the coming of the new-fangled launderette, and what it might do to their sense of community, and the impact that television might have.

Their lives are hard, but warm, and not just from the hot water and steam.

There’s an awareness of the way they are exploited, but this is a funny play, touching and nostalgic at times but hilarious at others.

Written by Roper, who appeared as Jamesie Cotter in Rab C.Nesbitt, The Steamie was first performed at the Crawford Theatre, Glasgow in 1987, with a television version produced in 1988.

The Steamie runs at The People’s Theatre, Heaton, from 1 to 5 April 2014. Tickets are available on the door, from the theatre’s website, or by calling 0191 265 5020.