Review: Waiting for Gateaux at Customs House

Comedy with a Cherry On Top!

Waiting for Gateaux

South Shields Customs House

Wednesday 10th – Saturday 13^th June 2015

Dirty Dusting’s writers Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood have penned another slice of comedy gold which is on at South Shield’s Customs House this week.

Welcome to “Motivators” – a select health club for those who love food. Perhaps they love food too much. As much as they suggest having a sprout crumble following Christmas, they like to finish their work out with chips, or a pizza, or both.

Maureen, played by the lovely Philippa Lyall who was making her Customs House debut, runs the club and makes the meal suggestions. She is a real diamond in the rough and sees the good in everyone.  

Donald is the only man who attends and he has lost a lot of weight as a huge photo reminds us. Paul Dunn clearly has fun playing the chap with a hang up over the lack of male changing facilities.

The select group is completed by Jackie – a role which earns Laura Lonsdale a lot of laughs from the South Shields’ crowd.

The story starts just after the excess of Christmas and Jackie brings along her sister. She was christened Whitney, after Miss Houston, but prefers to be known as Raven in tribute to Edgar Allen Poe.   Raven dresses in black and listens to Marilyn Manson records which is in stark contrast to the usual bright lycra and pumping dance music that accompanies keep fit classes. Sarah Boulter is also making her Customs House debut and she gets her share of laughs as the sharp-witted Raven.

Excitement spreads through the group when Maureen takes a call from Sophie who wants to make a tv programme called “Disarming The Obesity Timebomb”. Despite trying to be nonchalant about it, they are keen to impress.

When Sophie appears Maureen quickly signs the contract but this is not before the audience has plenty of opportunities to laugh at everyone’s exercise technique. Sophie is a strong character and Christina Berriman Dawson is terrific as the lady who thinks she is a cut above the rest.

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The show is full of quick nuggets of comedy gold in the dialogue which come thick and fast throughout the show. The shows adds extra portions of funny situations and a side dish of some quality sight gags. 

Gareth Hunter has directed and produced another delightful show.  Waiting For Gateaux is both a great story, with plenty of twists and turns, and a super serving of comedy. It’s a show that leaves the audience with a smile on its face.  

This review was written by Stephen Oliver for the North East Theatre Guide by Jowheretogo PR (www.jowheretogo.com). Follow Jo on twitter @jowheretogo, Stephen @panic_c_button or like Jowheretogo on Facebook www.facebook.com/Jowheretogo

Read the original North East Theatre Guide preview of Waiting for Gateaux HERE

Read about the next Ion Production at the Customs House which is the premiere of The Cinder Path HERE.

Tickets:

Waiting for Gateaux will be performed at the Customs House from Wednesday, June 10, to Saturday, June 13 at 7.30pm, with a matinees on Thursday and Saturday at 2.30pm. Tickets cost £13 and £11 (conc).

Customs House website link: http://www.customshouse.co.uk/whats-on/Theatre/1879/waiting-for-gateaux 

Preview: Waiting for Gateaux at Customs House

LISA RILEY SAYS WAITING FOR GATEAUX IS THE FUNNIEST PLAY SHE'S EVER BEEN IN

Waiting for Gateaux

South Shields Customs House

Wednesday10th – Saturday 13^th June 2015

Lisa Riley took time out of her busy filming schedule to send a message of support to South Shields theatre producer Gareth Hunter who is overseeing a production of the comedy Waiting For Gateaux at the Customs House next month.

Lisa, who is currently on location in Hungary for a feature film called Love in Budapest,  starred in the national tour of Waiting for Gateaux in 2010 and told Gareth how much she loves the play.

"Waiting For Gateaux is the funniest play I've ever been in," said the star of hugely successful national stage tours that includes Calendar Girls and The Vagina Monologues. 

In her 2013 autobiography Never Judge A Book By its Cover, the former Emmerdale star who has also been the voice of You’ve Been Framed and more recently captured the nation’s heart in Strictly Come Dancing, said: “Waiting For Gateaux is a wonderfully clever piece. We toured for five months and everywhere we went audiences and critics loved the play."

She told Gareth: "What I love about it is that it is a satirical play, set in a slimming club with one cycle, one yoga mat, one exercise ball and one muscle stretcher on stage it’s about four seriously dysfunctional people who come to the club more out of loneliness than a desire to lose weight. They are there to make friends and have a gossip.

"It's a great girls night out and for two hours allows people to realize what life is really about - friendship!"

Gareth said: "Lisa even asked me to let her know how the show went in South Shields."

Tickets:

Waiting for Gateaux will be performed at the Customs House from Wednesday, June 10, to Saturday, June 13 at 7.30pm, with a matinees on Thursday and Saturday at 2.30pm. Tickets cost £13 and £11 (conc).

Acoustic Circus / Gateshead Staiths Cafe Facebook event page LINK HERE

Click here to be taken to the Meghann Clancy EP launch event page

Review: The Cinder Path Workshop

Catherine Cookson’s The Cinder Path

Workshop

19^th April 2015.

I was invited to a workshop based around the latest draft of South Shields author Catherine Cookson’s The Cinder Path by Gareth Hunter of Ion Productions. Gareth has been producing high quality shows in South Tyneside for 10 years. He had recently brought Cookson’s The Fifteen Streets to South Shield’s Customs House. From the success of that show the stage adaptation of her 1978 book The Cinder Path will be making its world premiere at The Customs House in September 2015.

With it being the hundredth anniversary of World War 1, it is fitting that The Cinder Path is the show which has been chosen to be produced this year as it shows how men who had a tough farming background were to head off to war and fight in the trenches.

Whilst Cookson is a very popular author, who still regularly features in the charts for the most borrowed author from libraries, she has a reputation for portraying the males in her books in a fairly negative light.  The challenge for any stage show will be to retain the strong female characters and make the audience engage with the men. A scan of reviews online for The Cinder Path often refer to a dislike, by the readers of her book, of either the nasty or the weak male characters.

This brought us to the very ornate surroundings of the Chapel at the Mission to Seafarers in Mill Dam to see the product of the day’s workshop involving a talented group of actors. Working script in hand and without props they brought the first part of the script alive.

The story began with a farmer issuing orders to his staff and castigating the lad from the workhouse who was told to go to the cinder path in order to be punished. Very quickly the father is seen as a very strict disciplinarian as he ignores the pleas of his son to not see the cruel act take place. The strong caring female roles are, likewise, quickly established too.

Stories of royal families linking together, through the marriage of offspring, in order to strengthen alliances is mirrored by the desire of the owners of the two neighbouring farms to see their children marry. A funeral and a birthday party later and Cookson’s story looks at relationships within families and by employees.

The workshop performances finished with the sacking of an employee who knows a dark secret of his master. It will be interesting in September to return to the full story and find out what happens next. My initial fears about not engaging with the male parts had not come to light. I hope that the son is seen to have some backbone though in the full story. The female roles have the trademark Cookson strength of character. The script and direction had a quick pace. The use of the same actors for multiple roles wasn’t a problem. I’m intrigued to find out how they will bring the key scenes to the stage.

The drama has some interesting interplay between its characters and there are some clear challenges ahead to bring the full production to the stage. I have never considered myself to be a fan of wor Kate’s books, I have never had the desire to read one nor have I watched the dramas on TV, and yet I am looking forward to seeing the full finished production of The Cinder Path.

This review was written by Stephen Oliver for Jowheretogo PR (www.jowheretogo.com). Follow Jo on twitter @jowheretogo, Stephen @panic_c_button or like Jowheretogo on Facebook www.facebook.com/Jowheretogo

Preview: Perfect Wedding at South Shields Customs House

Actress Rosie Draws On Her Own

Perfect Wedding For New Role

Perfect Wedding

The Customs House

Wed 10th  - Sat 13th September

A newlywed actress is looking forward to saying ‘I do’ for the second time in a matter of weeks.

Rosie Ramsey married partner Chris this summer and she’s now calling on her own experiences as a bride when she stars in farce Perfect Wedding at The Customs House this week.

While the 28-year-old’s big day was almost all plain sailing the same can’t be said for her character Rachel, who has to put up with all kinds of mischief from her groom-to-be.

Rosie, from South Shields, said: “The play’s about a groom being caught in bed with another woman the morning of his wedding but like all good farces it’s all down to a number of misunderstanding.      It’s really funny and takes a few surprising turns for a comedy but overall there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and lots of fun to be had. On the morning of my wedding day all the hot water went off in the house but I managed to keep my cool. I was very calm and collected – I can’t say the same for the bride I’m playing. Even though I was a lot calmer than Rachel and I didn’t have to tackle any real curve balls, it did help me understand where she was coming from. As cheesy as it sounds my big day was the perfect wedding but it is quite stressful being a bride and I can understand why people turn into so-called bridezillas. I think if I’d been in Rachel’s position I would have known there had been a misunderstanding – but then that wouldn’t make for a very good play!”

Everything is set for the perfect wedding – that is until the groom wakes up with another woman in his bed. In the midst of his post stag do hangover he’s clueless to who she is and how she got there. 

If things can’t get any worse his fiancée arrives while the mystery woman is still in the bathroom. Will he be able to get his wedding day back on track?

Director Gareth Hunter added: “Rehearsals are going great and we’ve all had a lot of laughs putting this play together.  Rosie was perfect for this role and the fact that she’s just got married herself meant she could definitely draw on her own experiences and feeling.  It’s certainly made my job as director a lot easier and I can guarantee Rosie and the rest of the cast will give a performance guaranteed to make even the scariest of mother-in-laws laugh.”

Tickets:

Ion Productions’ Perfect Wedding runs at The Customs House from Wednesday 10 to Saturday 13 September at 7.30pm with a 2.30pm matinee on Thursday, September 11.

Tickets are £13 or £11 concessions and are available from the box office on 0191 454 1234 or by visiting www.customshouse.co.uk

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