This is the Life, says John Godber
Massively successful playwright John Godber takes his new work out on tour early in the New Year - and it's all about theatre.
But for once the greasepaint-inspired comedy drama is not about the life of actors and directors, but about two backstage workers at a theatre facing closure.
Cast Ciara Morris and Tom Gallagher, who play backstage workers Sapphire and Dave at "The Old Forge" Theatre when it opens at York Theatre Royal in January (27-30), play characters who have never wanted to be on stage. Despite dwindling audience numbers, unfunny stand-ups and a chaotic staff, they love the damp, crumbling old place and prefer the dark of the wings. But when they find out the venue is closing, shock and anger put them front and centre.
The pair offer to stage their own dramatic adventure - full of the characters they have met and scenes they have witnessed. It will be a show that brings back audiences... or gives developers an even better reason to turn the place into flats?
Godber explores hope, ghosts and the power of performance through this cynical backstage duo - who faced with the loss of their institution, realise more than ever that "this is the life".
The show opens in York and tours to theatres in Scarborough, Alnwick, Wakefield, Bolton. Bridlington, Durham, Windermere and Doncaster, among others.
Meanwhile, Godber's recent play The Highwayman is at Bolton Octagon from November 3-7
It’s 1769 and everyone is flocking north, every ale house is packed with the great and the bad and Yorkshire is the place to be. It's a region drunk on making money, gambling and gin, and with wealth in abundance, temptation is great…
Featuring performers Emilio Encinoso-Gil, Matheea Ellerby as Molly May and Dylan Allcock as Tate, the play looks at a phenomenon of the 18th Century that periodically returns in times of great local wealth - and draws on the stories of real-life local highwatmen such as John Palmer - known more generally to all as DIck Turpin...
