In Blyth, according to Joe Hufton, there are stories aching to be told – and plenty of people prepared to help in the telling of them.
In the coming days, some of these stories will find an audience and perhaps help to change people’s perceptions of an aspirational town with a fascinating history.
Joe is artistic director of Alnwick-based Novo Theatre – formerly November Club – which was commissioned to create a theatre piece for Blyth Celebrates, the cultural springboard for an ambitious 10-year vision for the town.
The time between commissioning and delivery was tight, says Joe, or at least tighter than Novo Theatre was used to. But actually it came at a good time for the company.
“We’d identified Blyth as somewhere we were interested in working and where we hadn’t worked very much before, certainly not while I’ve been here.
“So the opportunity presented itself through Blyth Celebrates and we jumped at it.
“It felt like an exciting opportunity to unlock some of the stories in the town and although we’ve had to work quicker than we’d usually work on something like this, we’ve had loads of support.
“I’m really pleased with the way things have turned out.”
The brief was to focus on the town centre and on the history of Blyth, bringing aspects of it to life in a theatrical way but not in a theatre.
“That’s why it felt like a nice fit. There’s always been a historical strand to our work and we are used to working in unusual spaces.”
The result of the commission and Novo Theatre’s intensive but fruitful spell in Blyth is Salt & Smoke: Stories of Blyth, a show with a difference.
Instead of sitting in a theatre, audiences will be sent on their way with a map, and in groups of up to 15, to experience surprising encounters in various locations.
“I’ve been describing it as a theatrical treasure hunt,” says Joe.
It could equally be called a landlubber’s voyage of discovery, echoing the exploits of Blyth-born William Smith who in the early 19th Century discovered Antarctica in a vessel built in the town.
It would be very surprising if Blyth’s famous explorer didn’t feature in the piece, at least in passing.
In Blyth, Joe and his team quickly discovered, there is no shortage of material.
“It is a really interesting place. It has the feel of a town that’s constantly reinventing itself and that makes for great storytelling.
“There have been so many waves of industry.
“In the 1700s salt produced in Blyth went all over the world and now you’ve got really modern industry represented by the likes of Catapult (the offshore renewable energy company).”
With a tight deadline, Joe and his Novo Theatre team descended on the town, aware that one of the perils of this kind of show – along with the weather which no-one can control – is the response of the locals.
“It’s a town where people are enormously friendly,” reports Joe with relief in his voice.
“We are a bit of an unusual ask. I knock on someone’s door and say, ‘Can I put an actor in your garden?’ In some place you’re met with real confusion over things like that but in Blyth the opposite was true.
“People have been warm and welcoming. They’ve given us stories and it’s been a wholly positive experience.
“We talked to people wherever we went. We’ve been helped enormously by Blyth Library and the other day I was at a boxing gym where they came up with two or three good stories. It’s been a combination of hard research and word of mouth.”
Understandably, Joe doesn’t want to reveal all the show’s secrets but he does say: “All the stories have come from Blyth but they stretch back a long way.
“Our earliest story is so old there couldn’t possibly be a first-hand account of it.
“We touch on Blyth’s record of early exploration and there’s a story about a terrible fire.
“Some of the extraordinary stories that emerged in the process make a cameo appearance.
“We heard an amazing story about a reindeer that arrived in Blyth on a submarine but I’m holding that for a Christmas show one day.”
Theatrical treasure hunters are likely to learn about a wartime Zeppelin raid and the biggest fish ever caught off Cambois.
Joe was also intrigued to learn of a meeting in Blyth Market Place when a huge audience was addressed by William Morris, the great Victorian socialist and leading light in the Arts & Craft movement.
It was Morris the political activist rather than art pioneer and textile designer that the Blyth crowd of workers turned out to hear.
Joe reveals that one stop on the Salt & Smoke tour will be the old Wallaw Cinema which is now a Wetherspoon pub – and he uses it as an example of Blyth’s open and collaborative spirit.
He had gone more in hope than expectation to ask if part of the pub could be transformed to illustrate a story harking back to the golden age of cinema in the town.
“We needed to do things that would affect them a bit but they said, ‘OK, fine, do what you want’.
“I’d really expected that to be a difficult ask but in fact the opposite was true.”
Of the finished show, Joe says: “We’ve really gone deep and I think it’ll be fun and that it’ll make people see Blyth as we’ve seen it during these weeks as a really interesting place.
“It has been a revelation to us to hear all these stories which show the part played by Blyth in the country and the world.”
It has also given Joe a chance to direct a group of professional actors he hasn’t worked with before.
Helping him to bring the past to life will be Bob Nicholson, Jackie Phillips, Micky Cochrane and Melanie Dagg.
appearing at various times will be Anna Mullak, Fred Barrett, Matthew Bryant and Darcy Lauren, theatre and performance students at Northumbria University who have benefited from Novo Theatre’s development programme, Novo Talent.
Another vital member of the creative team is Imogen Cloët. “She’s an exceptional designer and it’s been a pleasure to work with her,” says Joe.
“I always work closely with a designer and this has been a really collaborative experience, as will be clear to people, I think, when they see it.”
Tickets for Salt & Smoke: Stories of Blyth, which is suitable for all ages, are free but must be booked via the Blyth Celebrates website.
Performances, starting in Blyth Market Place, are from September 26 to 28 – Friday (4pm to 7pm), Saturday (11am to 7pm) and Sunday (12.30pm to 6pm, with BSL interpretation at 2.45pm and 4.45pm).
Blyth Celebrates, which runs until March 2026, is part of a regeneration programme being delivered by Northumberland County Council and with additional funding from the Government and North East Combined Authority, supported by other partners.