Cultured. On Sunday 07.06.26
This week we're talking theatre, making, nature and culture – from Richard Bean's birthday celebration to the artists, campaigners and thinkers shaping the North East's future
Hello and welcome to this week’s Cultured. On Sunday.
This edition finds us thinking about the things people leave behind – whether that’s a play still packing a punch more than 20 years after its premiere, generations of makers honing their craft, or the natural landscapes we’re hoping to pass on to those who come after us.
David Whetstone catches up with celebrated playwright Richard Bean ahead of a special reading of Smack Family Robinson at Live Theatre, returning to the stage where it all began in 2003 with a cast led by Denise Welch and her son Louis Healy.
We’re also taking a closer look at the artists and makers preparing for the return of the Great Northern Contemporary Craft & Art Fair, hearing from some of the creative people behind the work which will soon fill Northumbria University’s Sport Central.
Tony Henderson reports on two consultations which could help shape the future of Northumberland’s landscapes and wildlife, while Annie Rigby reflects on a room full of ideas, frustrations and ambitions following a recent Newcastle Culture Partnership discussion about the region’s cultural future.
And for anyone looking to round things off with a bit of television, Mike TV goes undercover with a crime drama based on an extraordinary true story.
Tuck in!
Class A drugs, surefire laughs and Richard Bean’s North East hit
Most people probably know Richard Bean for One Man, Two Guvnors, his hilarious adaptation of an 18th Century comedy by Italian playwright Carlo Goldini, set in the 1960s.
It premiered at the National Theatre in 2011 and went on to win plaudits galore, boosting the acting credentials of James Corden who won a Tony Award when it ran on Broadway.
In 2012 it brought the house down at the Theatre Royal when Rufus Hound took the Corden role of Francis Henshall, out-of-work skiffle player turned illicit multi-tasker trying to keep his two bosses out of each other’s orbit.
It’s still generating laughter, says the real Mr Bean.
“I think there are about six productions on around the world, amateur or professional.
“For me it’s a bit of a pension plan. You need one otherwise you’d need to do another job.”
And you can see why he wouldn’t want that, well knowing the perils of two guvnors.
Some years before the inadvertent pension plan opened in London, Richard Bean had his sights on Newcastle after his work had caught the eye of Jeremy Herrin, then associate director at Live Theatre.
Herrin fancied directing Toast, Bean’s second play inspired by his early experience of working in a bakery, but also wanted to commission a new play… which turned out to be Smack Family Robinson.
The stories and the makers behind the stalls
If you like discovering things before everyone else, the Great Northern Contemporary Craft & Art Fair is worth clearing some diary space for.
Returning to Newcastle later this month after a successful debut last year, the fair will once again fill Northumbria University’s Sport Central with makers, artists and designers from across the North East and beyond.
Taking place from June 18-21, the event will open with a preview evening before a full weekend of exhibitions, demonstrations and opportunities to meet artists working across disciplines including fine art, sculpture, textiles, jewellery, ceramics and furniture… and find out what inspires them to create it.
Of course, that’s one of the joys of an event like this.
In an age of online shopping, one-click purchases and an endless stream of ‘buy me!’ suggestions dictated by algorithms which think they know us better than we know ourselves, there’s increasingly something refreshing about talking directly to the person who made the thing you’re holding.
You get the story as well as the object, (and don’t have to think twice about whether AI is responsible for the information you’re receiving!)
Ahead of this year’s fair, we caught up with some of the artists and makers who will be taking part. Some are returning after exhibiting at last year’s inaugural event. Others will be experiencing the fair for the first time.
Their practices span everything from handwoven textiles and botanical casting to contemporary fashion, printmaking and furniture design, but they share a passion for making things thoughtfully and well.
Every week, Michael Telfer – aka Mike TV – recommends a box set to crack open. This time he’s undercover with a rollicking crime drama based on a true story.
This week’s recommendation is the gritty crime drama about life in His Majesty’s Customs and Excise that the world didn’t know it needed.
And if you’re not immediately sold on the idea then please keep reading, it’s a lot better than its topline premise.
Netflix’s Legends is a dramatisation of the true story of British customs investigators who went undercover to infiltrate the drug world in the early 1990s, on the front line of Margaret Thatcher’s war on drugs.
For officers more used to opening random suitcases in airports or tackling unpaid duty on grey market car radios than fronting up to gun-toting heroin dealers, the gear change comes as quite a shock.
Thankfully they have ex-undercover policeman Don Clarke, brilliantly played by Steve Coogan, to show them the ropes and weed out the applicants that would have blended into the criminal underworld about as well as a chicken in a fox den.
What happens when a region starts talking about culture?
After a Newcastle Culture Partnership event exploring the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority’s draft cultural framework, Unfolding Theatre founder Annie Rigby reflects on the ideas, challenges and shared ambitions that filled the room.
It’s the morning after our third Newcastle Culture Partnership event. The event at Great North Museum: Hancock asked people to share their thoughts on the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority’s draft framework for Culture, Creative Industries and Sport.
Now here I am, balancing on a yellow stool in Unfolding Theatre office, trying to take a photo that contains all of the handwritten notes. Even reaching as high as I can, I can’t fit them all in.
I’m not attempting to digest all the notes here. Instead, I am reflecting on things I noticed.
First of all, it’s the very fact that there’s a lot. I felt that in the room too. There’s a lot to say. Lots of voices, ideas and challenges. Lots of thought, care - frustration too - and desire to make things better for culture and communities in the North East.
I feel energised by how often conversations circled back to the artists and freelancers who make up the majority of our workforce, but are often the most precarious part of the ecology. I hope this recurring theme will translate into action that improves conditions, and in turn sparks vibrant, confident and distinct North East creativity.
The need to strengthen collaboration ran through many conversations. As did investing in community engagement and inclusion. The challenge of how ‘success’ is measured was raised. As well as long-term thinking, and the distinctiveness of place.
I was struck by the honesty in the room. Keith Merrin set a useful context noting that the Mayoral Strategy is born out of the government’s Industrial Strategy. This positions the majority of investment into what is most likely to deliver high economic growth. This sparked really interesting conversations.
I thought about Unfolding Theatre - the company I founded nearly 18 years ago. I can’t promise we’re going to deliver millions to the Treasury any time soon. But I am confident we’ve built a resilient business that will still be making theatre, engaging audiences and employing people as the years go by. I know many organisations that could say the same.
And that circles back to the value of culture. Keith gave the example of the child that visits a museum and sees something that sparks an interest that opens up a path that shapes their life.
We are all part of an ecology. Museums, community centres, theatres, individual practitioners, galleries, studios. It’s not always easy to predict what will lead where. But the stronger the ecology, the more will grow.
If you weren’t able to join us, there’s still time to contribute to the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority’s consultation online. You can share your thoughts here until June 17.