Star cast announced for Richard Bean birthday celebration reading
Mother and son Denise Welch and Louis Healy, will be joined by Trevor Fox, Beth Crame and Luke Maddison at Live Theatre to mark the award-winning playwright's 70th birthday
Denise Welch and her son Louis Healy will come together at Live Theatre next month for a special reading celebrating the 70th birthday of acclaimed playwright Richard Bean.
The one-off performance of Smack Family Robinson, taking place on June 19, revisits the darkly comic Whitley Bay-set play which premiered at the Newcastle venue in 2003.
Best known for the international smash hit One Man, Two Guvnors, Richard has long enjoyed a close relationship with Live Theatre, and this anniversary reading will bring a host of familiar North East names back to the Quayside stage.
Denise will read the role of family matriarch Catherine Robinson, while Louis takes on the part of son Sean, who is preparing to inherit the family’s less-than-conventional business empire.
The play centres on a family of drug dealers grappling with a rapidly changing marketplace, growing competition and shifting family loyalties. The play’s original production was praised for its sharp humour and unflinching look at family life, drawing what organisers describe as a “fine white line between love and hate”.
Louis arrives in Newcastle fresh from his West End debut run as Henry Creel in the production of Stranger Things: The First Shadow. His television credits include Hotel Portofino, The Pact, Vera, Emmerdale and Ackley Bridge. He was last on stage in the North East during February’s Sunday for Sammy fundraising concerts at Newcastle’s Utilita Arena alongside his dad, Tim Healy in a series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet sketches.
Denise’s connection to Live Theatre stretches back decades.
She began her professional career at the venue in Yesterday’s Children before going on to become a familiar face on British television through roles in Coronation Street, Waterloo Road, Hollyoaks, Emmerdale and Soldier Soldier - as well as her long-running duties as a regular on the Loose Women panel.
Joining them for the reading will be regular Live Theatre collaborator Trevor Fox as family patriarch Gavin Robinson; Beth Crame will read the role of daughter Cora, while actor and performance coach Luke Maddison takes on the role of son Robert.
The reading takes place at Live Theatre on Friday, June 19, with tickets available now.