Meet the cast of Our Friends in the North
TV epic back on stage
Casting has been announced for one of the most eagerly awaited plays of the year – the new stage adaptation of Our Friends in the North.
Those old enough to have been engrossed in the epic BBC TV series of 30 years ago will remember that the four main characters whose tangled fortunes we followed were Mary, Nicky, Tosker and Geordie.
On television they were played by Gina McKee, Christopher Eccleston, Mark Strong and Daniel Craig, all of whom went on to become household names.
Due to play the parts at the Theatre Royal, where the show will open in October, will be Sam Neale, Ryan Nolan, Jack Robertson and Scott Turnbull – who, unlike their TV forerunners, are all from the North East.
Gina McKee, of course, was an exception, hailing from Peterlee.
Sam Neale, from Newcastle, once revealed that her first TV role was as a corpse in an episode of Vera, meaning there were no lines to learn.
“I was in the same episode as Gina so there’s a nice little full circle moment,” she said as the four cast members got together for the first time at Live Theatre, which is co-producing the show with the Theatre Royal and Jamie Eastlake’s Eastlake Productions.
All being from the region, they know something of each other’s work. And if they’re not close now, it’s likely they’ll know each other a lot better after the five-week rehearsal period which begins in September.
Sam remembered watching the TV series (adapted by Peter Flannery from his own original play for the Royal Shakespeare Company) with her mother.
“It was probably a bit racy for an 11-year-old but I remember loving it, hearing those stories about Newcastle and all these intense relationships and intriguing love triangles.
“It was compelling, even if I didn’t really understand the political storyline or the social turmoil.
“I was gripped by the central characters and the course of Mary’s and Nicky’s relationship.”
Mary, she noted, was “doing a lot of the heavy lifting, being the female representation.”
On TV we watched the characters’ lives unfold over decades, beginning in the 1960s when Mary and Nicky were young, idealistic and in love.
We saw how Mary ended up with Tosker whose outlook on life changed as he immersed himself in the business world.
Then there was Geordie who escaped from his abusive, alcoholic father by going to London and falling in with its seedier elements.
As a backdrop to the characters’ personal stories were some of the big issues of the day – police and political corruption and industrial strife, notably the year-long miners’ strike.
It’s the episodes dealing with the Thatcher years of the late 1970s and 1980s which are the focus of the new stage version, to be directed by Jack McNamara, Live Theatre’s artistic director.
Ryan Nolan, also from Newcastle, watched the TV series for the first time about four months ago.
“I loved the ambition of it. No-one was a stereotype. Everyone had a world view. Everyone was flawed and had desires or was in conflict.
“It was nice to see people not reduced to lazy stereotypes. I loved how sprawling it was and that they are involved with each other. When I found it was being put on I was like, right, I want to be part of that.”
He didn’t expect to land the part of Nicky, though. “To be honest, I thought I was too young. I put myself forward for Anthony (son of Mary and Tosker) because that’s probably how I saw myself.”
Jack Robertson, from Whitley Bay, said: “When I knew I wanted to be an actor I had a fixation on stuff that was made in the North East, film and television.
“It was Get Carter and Spender and Purely Belter, and ‘Our Friends’ was one of them. It was a big production and so exciting to see this regional story that felt so much bigger than the area.
“It felt like a story that embraced the whole country with its big political divides and it still feels relevant today.
“Tosker changes his political views and has disagreements with his son and with Mary. The version of him I’ve read is that he’s a man riddled with fatigue, a bloke blaming everyone but himself for his failings.
“In the TV series you saw a bit of him in a band with Geordie and you felt there was a bit of promise there, but from what I’ve read we’re coming into Tosker’s story when he’s at the end of his rope.”
Teessider Scott Turnbull’s take on Geordie, who in the TV series gets involved in the Soho sex scene before hitting rock bottom, is that he’s lost.
“He’s running away… constantly running from something and scared.
“With all the characters it’s as if they’re always looking for love and meaning in the wrong places and never finding it, or finding it and losing it repeatedly.
“I think every audience member will see something of that in themselves. I mean, we’re all always trying, right, but often we’re failing.”
For this talented quartet, it’s time to bask in a bit of success before ‘curtain up’.
Jack McNamara said hundreds had expressed an interest in being in the production.
“There is genuinely an amazing standard of actors up here. The standard was so high.”
Tickets were selling well, he said, and already there was a sense that it was a “big enough story” to tour and maybe take to London.
“October will be the test but we’re making it with a view to having a longer life and showcasing the region.”
There will be no resting on laurels over the summer, though, for those who landed the key roles.
Sam, having taken a break from acting recently, is emerging as a talented writer and has her sights set on the world of film.
Recently she was writer-in-residence at the Tyneside Cinema where she wrote a short film and a draft for a feature film.
Currently she is pursuing funding to get those projects up and running. “I’m also writing a horror play,” she said.
Scott is taking his award-winning show, Surreally Good, back to the Edinburgh Fringe in August which is where Jack Robertson is also heading with his Metroland comedy sketch group.
Ryan, meanwhile, spent two weeks last year filming a short film in Bilbao with Catherine Zeta-Jones for which he had to adopt a Welsh accent.
With the working title Kill Jackie, he’s guessing it might hit our screens at the same time as Our Friends in the North opens in Newcastle.
His film star credentials (he also appeared in Sam Mendes’ First World War film, 1917 – as did Mark Strong) could have been burnished further by the time his Nicky ventures on stage.
As a graduate of the Project A acting school at the Theatre Royal, Ryan said he was looking forward to his first performance on the main stage.
Sam and Scott will also be making their Theatre Royal debuts while Jack did perform there in recent hit Gerry & Sewell, a theatre spin-off from the film Purely Belter which was on his early viewing bucket list.
“I’m ticking them off,” he joked.
Also signed up for the ensemble cast of Our Friends in the North are Meena Al-Nawrasy, Chris Connel, Jane Holman, Leo James, Cooper McDonough, Jude Nelson and Robert Punchard.
Our Friends in the North (1979-84) opens at the Theatre Royal on October 15 and runs until October 24. Tickets are on sale via the Theatre Royal website or call the box office on 0191 232 7010.