A PLAY about Sunderland’s past, present and future will finally be staged this month after it was initially commissioned before the first Covid lockdown.
Pursuers of the Future was written by young regional playwright Scott Young and a cast of 29 community and professional actors will perform the play at The Fire Station, Sunderland, on Sunday, November 20 (2pm and 7.30pm).
Director Corinne Kilvington is delighted Pursuers of the Future will finally be staged: “It’s a great piece and was originally commissioned by Sunderland Culture before Covid struck. We managed to stream parts of the play during the second lockdown, but we’ve really enjoyed working with the actors in-person. It’s been far easier than rehearsing on Zoom.
“The play is based around Sunderland myths and legends and conversations with Sunderland people. It also features some great original folk music from Jen Stevens and some larger than life puppetry, including The Lambton Worm.
“The story is about teenager Charlie who is growing up in Sunderland and wants everything to change quickly, and her granddad who remembers the shipyards and the mines and wants the city to go back to where it once was,” explained Corinne.
“There are two threads to it: there is an intimate portrayal of a Sunderland family, their thoughts and tribulations, and then there is a more epic tale involving the Lambton Worm.
“It’s about where the city was, where it is now and where it could be in the future post Brexit and post pandemic,” she added.
The community performers responded to a call-out for participants, and members of the local community are also involved behind the scenes, making scenery, props and costumes.
Corinne, who is Artistic Director of Theatre Space North East, said Pursuers of the Future has the largest cast she’s ever worked with: “A large proportion of the cast has never acted before, but they’ve all been great and so easy to work with.
“We have three generations of one family, and the backgrounds of the actors ranges from students to retired people and from a roofer to someone who works for the fire service and an optometrist. I think the variety of backgrounds has added even more to the experience.
“This is the first time I’ve worked with Scott, but he’s a talented young writer and it’s been super fun working on this project with him. It’ a great script with some large, Greek-chorus style set pieces and then beautifully observed, intimate family moments.
“We’ve had a very experienced professional crew supporting the actors and those working behind the scenes and we’re excited for people to see what we’ve produced.”
Pursuers of the Future is a Sunderland Culture commission supported through the Arts Council England and National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Great Place scheme.
Helen Green, Head of Performance at Sunderland Culture, said: “Sunderland Culture commissioned Scott Young to write a new community play for Sunderland as part of its Great Place Unify programme back in 2019. We are delighted that Theatre Space North East has been able to take the script forward to make a full scale production with members of our community and look forward with anticipation to seeing it on stage.”
Tickets for the show are available from www.thefirestation.org.uk