Preview: Lady in the Van at Newcastle’s People’s Theatre

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“One seldom was able to do her a good turn without some thoughts of strangulation.”

The Lady in the Van

by Alan Bennett

Newcastle’s People’s Theatre

Tuesday 15^th to Saturday 19^th November 2016

When Alan Bennett allowed an elderly homeless lady to park her camper van on his driveway, he little imagined she’d stay there for 15 years.

This bittersweet epitaph to the enigmatic and cantankerous ex-nun Miss Shepherd is a wryly humorous account of the writer’s strained relationship with this prickly and eccentric old woman.

Now a successful film starring Dame Maggie Smith, Bennett’s play was a huge hit when it premiered at the National Theatre in 1999.

 Anne Cater as Miss Shepherd

Photo: Dianne Edwards

Our previous production in 2007 was its first (and thus far, only) staging in Newcastle, so we are proud once again to present this heart-warming exploration of human kindness, liberal guilt, and a writer’s eternal fascination with the quirkier side of life.

For fans of one of England’s greatest national treasures Alan Bennett, this play is unique in his oeuvre whereby the author is represented in it as a character himself. Not one but two Bennetts, in fact, who bicker with one another and reflect the mixed feelings he had about his outlandish lodger.

Miss Shepherd is played once again by Anne Cater, whose portrayal of the dilapidated denizen of the driveway was called “startlingly good” by The Journal the last time she took the van for a spin around our stage!

Tickets:

Lady In The Van comes to Newcastle’s People’s Theatre from Tuesday 15^th to Saturday 19^th November 2016 at 7.30pm. Tickets cost: £13.50 (Concessions £11)
and are available by calling the box office on 0191 265 5020 on online from www.peoplestheatre.co.uk