A dark and stylish adaption of a classic 1960s British Crime drama will be staged in Durham next month. Get Carter, directed by Northern Stage Artistic Director Lorne Campbell, will be coming to Durham’s Gala Theatre on Tuesday 12 April until Saturday 16 April.
Set in the 1960s in Newcastle, Torben Betts’ adaptation of the novel Jack’s Return Home by Ted Lewis, which was made famous by the Mike Hodges film starring Michael Caine, takes a hard and uncompromising look at a city’s underworld gang culture and a gripping noir thriller.
The show, which has toured Glasgow, Richmond and Coventry, features array of talent including Newcastle-born Kevin Wathen who will play Jack Carter.
People may recognise Kevin from his TV roles including George Gently, Silent Witness, Judge John Deed, all BBC shows, And Kill Them (Channel 4) and Blue Murder (ITV). He also played Tony Elliot in Billy Elliot at Victoria Place, London, The Godfather in Quadrophenia at Plymouth Theatre and Mad Hatter in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Donald McBride who will play Albert, Brumby and Gumboots, has been a regular at Live Theatre in Newcastle for more than thirty years. He played Jimmy Floyd in The Pitmen Painters which went on to tour nationally and internationally.
Donald is also appeared on TV screens with roles in North East dramas Our Friends in the North, Spender and Auf Wiedersehen Pet.
Other stars of the show include Victoria Elliot, a Newcastle-born actress best known for her role in BBC sitcom Hebburn, Amy Cameron from Sunderland who appeared in ITV’s Vera alongside Brenda Blethyn and Benjamin Cawley who featured as Kanzo in Dr Who earlier this year.
Leo Warner/59 Productions, who will be designing the set for Get Carter, has been responsible for the video design at Danny Boyle’s London 2012 Opening Ceremony.
The production team has travelled the world and worked on more than hundred shows at venues including The Royal Opera House, The National Theatre, The Royal Court, The Young Vic, English National Opera and The Metropolitan Opera in New York.
North East singer-songwriter Nadine Shah will record original music for the show as well as new arrangements of songs by iconic 1960s Newcastle band, The Animals. Nadine will also be working with sound designer, James Frewer, and producer Ben Hillier, who produced albums for Blur, Depeche Mode and U2.
Torben Betts’, writer of Get Carter said: “My adaptation is very much a reaction to the novel the film was based on. The story is in itself quite simple. A gangster goes back to his home town to bury his older brother and he suspects foul play. He trawls around the town’s underworld until he discovers his suspicions are well-founded.
“What was more interesting was to look at how we could re-imagine this very well-known narrative. To look at Jack’s environment growing up as he did in a brutalised post-war world. I wanted to look at the kind of man Jack Carter is, why he became the way he did.”
For more information or to buy tickets visit www.galadurham.co.uk, call the 03000 266 600 or pop into the box office in person. Tickets cost between £12 and £15.